


Kismet

by KiwiePoe



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Assault, Canon Compliant (for now), Domestic Fluff, Ella Lopez Finds Out, Flashbacks, Implied/Referenced Attempted Suicide, Make Michael harder not softer, Multi, Mystery, Non-Linear Narrative, Romance, Slow Burn, Stealing Characters From Sandman, Surreal, Tags May Change, Trauma, Triggers, Worldbuilding, eventual angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:06:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 48,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29166936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiwiePoe/pseuds/KiwiePoe
Summary: "You're afraid," Chloe states matter-of-factly.She catalogues this as fact.She's human.He's the Devil.God reached a verdict.A wave of cacophonous ringing fills her ears before she scarcely hears his reply, "Of what? The end of time?"She takes note of the patronizing slight in his tone that tells her nothing and everything."Of change."_____________________________________________________________________________________________Chloe bargains for Lucifer's return to Earth, but like any deal with a celestial- it comes at a price. But will Chloe be able to remember before the apocalypse in time to prevent it?Set after Season 4 | Spoilers for Season 5. Canon-compliant for now.
Relationships: Amenadiel & Linda Martin (Lucifer TV), Chloe Decker & Lucifer Morningstar, Chloe Decker & Trixie Espinoza & Lucifer Morningstar, Dan Espinoza & Mazikeen, Dan Espinoza & Trixie Espinoza & Mazikeen, Ella Lopez & Michael
Comments: 12
Kudos: 44
Collections: Mizu Kiri Collection





	1. Prologue: Mizu Kiri

**Author's Note:**

> As a born-again ff reader/writer I am new to this decade's culture. (I'm from the bygone era of FF.net being the only thing around.) I'm inspired by a few writers in this fandom on Ao3, and hope to one day be a storyteller of their calibre. 
> 
> This fic I've been working on for the last four months and considering my goal, which is one where I hope to engage this fic's audience and incorporate their feedback where I ask for it, it's been a balance between working ahead, knowing the general beat-breakdown, and having a strong idea of the ending. Part one is over 2/3rds written, the beats broken down till the end and all the beats are developed for the next two parts. 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Soundtrack: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaCXp0JFzDx6O8kmOwxLAvHc  
> Fic Blog and Artwork: mizukiri.tumblr.com  
> 
> 
> FULL SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaD9thdXvGwpstPh7S0HLHdN

__

_When the Devil finds his first love_ ,  
 _evil shall be released._

Sometimes a legend begins at its beginning, which many would agree is a particularly good place to start. Still… when considering the players and their immortal lives, and when the full extent of reality is weighed and judged— Much of the beginning is unnecessary for this tale.

In later reflection, there is always a possibility that the question as to why, if commencing at all, was it thought appropriate to start here of all places. What context could an event from several years prior have to do with their destiny, with all its mundane activities? With all the challenges they faced ahead, the regrets of their past rewritten, why was this day to be included?

Only time could tell.

_When you love somebody, and you bite your tongue  
All you get is a mouthful of blood._

"Mulan, Detective, really?" Lucifer asks Chloe, his voice veering perilously close to an air of complaint. The cackles of people in paddleboats reverberate through the air. Six blocks away, the house that she and Dan used to share in Echo Park sits empty, the occupants on their way to her location. Chloe checks the time, realizing that the bell at Trixie's elementary school must have rung by now.

"Out of all those basic bitch princesses, Mulan at least knows what's up." Maze, clad in a loose black minidress, offers. 

"Language," Chloe automatically interjects.

"Relax," Maze whines, grasping a carrot from the vegetable tray. "Kid's not even here yet. Also, Mulan? Closest to a demon. Suffocation is a popular form of torture back home." 

To Chloe's abject wonder, it appears as though Lucifer is weighing Maze's insights as though this topic of conversation makes any amount of sense. The bounty hunter tilts her head as she chomps into the carrot before dipping her finger in potato salad to sample. 

"Maze! Use a spoon! Lucifer—" 

"That is entirely the point, Mazikeen! Now, if I had known that ridiculous man-child with daddy issues—" 

"Now, doesn't that sound familiar." Maze grumbles, and Chloe bites back a chortle as she looks up into the sun and meets her roommate's eyes. The Detective’s powder blue day-dress floats in the breeze, a white cardigan laid to the side in case it gets blustery, loose tendrils of her flaxen hair tickling her nose. Chloe holds her hands up to her forehead to try and see Lucifer, an apprehensive and exasperated look plastered to his face. It is a look that Chloe knows all too well. 

Groaning, he raises his flask from the heather grey suit he has chosen for this event, and she finds herself bemused by how overdressed he is. They arranged for an evening of fun at the park, boat rides, cake, and then head to the pier after Dan goes home for the night. All of the activities scream grease, grunge, sand, salt, and water. Elements that Chloe knows do not bode well for light-coloured dry-clean-only items. 

_At least he went without a vest._ Chloe ruminates.

"As I was saying before, I was so rudely interrupted was that if Disney was going to include actual historical figures in crude renditions of his artistic expression, I would have probably refrained from giving him the help he required."

_Really, it wouldn't have been because he was a known racist and bigot,_ Chloe contemplates to herself before adding, _I doubt Disney planned for Mulan considering he died thirty years before it came out._

But the Detective knows that it would be playing into his metaphors to do so, and today's not the day. Instead, she responds, "And you don't live with her." 

Maze comes around behind her and encompasses Chloe's shoulder in solidarity. 

"It's not Frozen or Tangled. So, excuse us for finding it a little refreshing to not have to hear 'Let It Go' for the four millionth time even if," Chloe looks over to Maze, "Some of Trixie's reasons for loving it are not **entirely** wholesome." 

Maze yanks her hand off Chloe's shoulder and holds both of her arms slightly above her head. 

"I'm not going to apologize for teaching her how to take care of herself." 

Chloe gathers up the items Maze had been laying out and continues to arrange them, so there are five spots set. Lucifer huffs heavily, crowding Chloe from behind and rearranging the napkins she just laid out.

 _Here we go._ Chloe bites her lip, her pulse quickens as he enters her space, seemingly oblivious to his effect on her currently. Affection pools within her, and she chastises herself. Chloe concentrates on Lucifer’s hands as he fusses, graceful and skilled as he folds the tissue portions into triangles before depositing them underneath the utensils. She feels her hand tremor, itching to touch him, and before she knows it, she reaches out for his own.

"Stop!" Chloe snickers, "Will you stop it? They're fine just the way they are!"

Her other hand is placed against his forearm, caressing tenderly, and though her words seem clipped and commanding, her face is as rosy in the midday heat as her smile is easy. 

He balks at her in opposition; however, he stills himself at the attachment. His confused brown eyes appear almost onyx when backlit from this angle, but she follows his gaze down towards the connection between them. Her hands are on him, her thumb gently massaging small circles into his forearm. Flashes of two nights ago run through her head, how it felt when he placed the corsage on her, dancing under confetti, how he had dressed in a bowtie for the occasion. 

She pulls her fingers away, chastising herself internally. "Not now." 

Chloe observes him grow rigid beside her; his brow wrinkled in consternation. "My apologies, Detective, I had no intention—" 

"No! I know that—" Chloe interrupts him before he can finish. 

_Not you, us._

"I just— I'm just saying that when it's her day? It's hers." 

_I'm sorry I slipped.  
I can't afford to have you run away from us when it's her day to spend with us.   
With you. _

These are all things that Chloe would have rather said but knows that any mention of their strained affections could make matters worse. Maze snorts loudly, rolling her eyes in disdain, proceeding to set out presents and décor. Chloe senses the agitation in his body return as he stands straighter than he had mere seconds before. He's like a quasar pulling her in, invading all her senses, and she begins to wonder what—

_NOPE. Hold those horses, Chloe._

"Lucifer, I'm—" 

"Surely you not suggesting—" 

"LUCIFER!!!" A high pitch cry rings out, and Chloe whispers a silent prayer to whatever has timed Trixie's fortuitous entrance. The Detective watches as her partner does everything in his power not to push her child away as the ten-year-old climbs him like a tree. 

"Happy birthday, Urchin," Lucifer offers, his voice laced with anxiety, and Chloe looks in the direction from where Trix had appeared. Dan and Charlotte are strolling hand in hand towards the group. 

"You came!" Chloe exclaims, using this as an excuse to hastily exit Lucifer's gravitational pull while he works his way out of Trixie's vice-grip. Charlotte removes herself from Dan's arm and embraces Chloe when they meet. 

Chloe sympathizes. At first, she was unsure whether they've all been together in a situation outside work. For almost a year or so now, they all have held such vital positions in each other's lives, but the more she reflected when she had been grabbing party supplies, the more she realized that they had not all spent time outside of work together, with Trixie. 

Beatrice Espinoza: a universal mediator to all the crazy adults in her life. 

Chloe had then fantasized as she picked up Mulan paper plates and napkins about all the awkward conversations bound to arise.

She pulls out of Charlotte's embrace and walks beside them over to the picnic table. 

"So!" Charlotte begins, "Mulan?" 

"Ugh… I'll explain later," Chloe tells her before leaning in close and whispering. "When Lucifer isn't around." 

Sometime later, Chloe is guarding gifts while resetting the table. Lucifer keeps her company after making it clear that, in no uncertain terms, was he ever going to get on the lake with the rest of the group unless he was granting it as a favour for something in return.

"Detective, this pack of shamefully cheap wax sticks that dare to call themselves candles clearly states it's meant to have ten in it. But there appears to only be nine." 

Chloe looks at the small box inside Lucifer's perfectly manicured hands. Trixie's squeal causes her to look up. Maze and Trix share one of the paddle boats; Charlotte and Dan ride along in another. The Detective shrugs her shoulders and takes them gently from him

"Oh well, nothing we can do about it now." 

"That's not true. If you can wait for a brief moment, I can go purchase another pack as quickly as possible." 

"Lucifer, it's okay. You care more than she does. She just wants all her favourite adults to be here. If you leave now, you'll miss it." 

"But I won't if you **choose** to wait and allow me to remedy the situation." 

"It's getting late. I'm not going to force Trixie to wait for her cake." 

The urge to remind him today is not about him grows inside Chloe. But she chooses a different approach. 

"Things like this just happen sometimes." She explains to him as she starts to place the nine candles all around the outside of the very decadent cake. 

"The Devil isn't one to disappoint, darling, and I'm not about to start now." He protests, jamming his hands into his pockets. She finds something endearing about his frustration and apparent fixation on such a simple mishap.

Then it dawns on her. 

"This isn't your fault, you know. No need to start with your devil tirades." She inadvertently swipes a little of the chocolate frosting onto her thumb while setting the candles. Chloe swears under her breath before placing her thumb in her mouth and looking out on the lake. The icing tastes better than she had anticipated, but she had conceded to allowing Lucifer to be the purveyor of the dessert, so she had known that it would be delicious. It seems that Trixie and Maze are using the paddle boat like a bumper car, much to the owner of the boat's chagrin. 

"Mmm," she hums, relishing the taste of the chocolate. She continues to watch how Dan and Charlotte manage to dodge the other boat. She swirls her tongue around the digit before pulling it from her lips with a subtle pop.

"It's the law of averages, Lucifer. All kids find their family disappointing at some point. It's part of raising a child." When Chloe looks over to her partner, she's met with an incomprehensible look on his face. 

"What?" 

"Nothing," is his short and concise response. Lucifer shoves his hands deeper into his pockets, balling his hands into fists, causing the fabric to pull away from him unnaturally, refusing to meet her gaze. Chloe knows it is **not** nothing, but once she realizes what the something _is_ , she doesn't want to draw attention to the fact that apparently, her licking icing off herself is enough to... 

Well. 

_Yeah, sure,_ Chloe thinks, rolling her eyes at the situation. _The Devil has the hots for a single mom in her late thirties._ That, in itself, is enough to make her snicker at his ridiculous claims. 

As the sound of footfalls approach, they both look out to see Maze and Dan holding Trixie's hands between them, their arms low as she takes running jumps and using her upper body strength, she pushes off their resistance. 

"MARS STEPS!" Trixie bellows in delight, and Chloe can see Charlotte following behind, beaming as she records the interaction on Dan's phone. 

"Get ready," Chloe whispers, and he pulls out his lighter and holds it over top of their wicks.

"Happy Birthday to you…" Chloe begins to sing shyly before Dan and Charlotte join in as well. Trixie's smile is wide and bright as she approaches the picnic table. Chloe senses Lucifer coming up beside her, joining in on the song, holding the cake carefully away from his suit as he waits for Trixie to sit. As soon as she is on the bench, he places it down with grace in front of her. 

"Happy birthday, dear Trixie—" 

"–Urchin—" 

"Happy Birthday… to, you…" They all finish, and Chloe's almost proud of Lucifer for not completely stealing the song away from everyone else nor shocked that he chose to address her by his unique term of endearment. 

"Make a wish, Monkey," Dan encourages her.

Trixie looks up to Chloe and Lucifer, shifting her sights to Dan and Maze, before staring across the table to Charlotte, who is still recording. Her smile is full of pride before she inhales dramatically. 

"WAIT!" Charlotte calls out, and Chloe looks up, confused. "I want to get a picture! Everyone, huddle in closer." 

The four adults look at each other a little embarrassed before leaning down closer. The ten-year-old once again takes a deep breath, ready to annihilate the flames threatening to spill wax all over her birthday cake. Chloe feels Lucifer's hand on the small of her back, pulling her focus away from the moment, and she chastises herself internally. 

Trixie's breath only hitches for the briefest of moments. She blows out violently, managing to extinguish all the flames. Dan and Chloe stand up to clap while Maze and Lucifer exchange puzzled looks between themselves. Chloe notes that Lucifer's hand still hasn't moved from her back, his thumb shifting back and forth in a similar movement to how she had caressed him earlier. She wishes she didn't have to move. 

_There's that heat again, Decker,_ she chastises herself. 

Sighing, Chloe removes the cake from Trixie and takes it over to the end of the picnic table. Dan moves to help her serve, while Chloe grabs a knife they packed and cuts into the circle-shape evenly. 

"What did you wish for Urchin?" She overhears Lucifer ask Trixie as he folds his arms and sits down at the picnic table opposite her, left of Charlotte. 

"Luc-i-fer," Chloe smiles at the way Trixie says his name. She thinks it can be quite similar to how he calls her Detective, "That's not how wishes work." 

"Well, of course, that's how they bloody work, offspring. How is anyone to get what they want if they never communicate?" 

Chloe stops what she is doing and notices how Dan's hand has also stilled above the cake in front of him. She sneaks a peek at Maze, who is narrowing her eyes at Lucifer, then to Trixie. The only two oblivious to Lucifer's rhetorical question seem to be Charlotte and Lucifer himself. 

She feels the warmth of embarrassment crawl against her skin as she looks down at her hands once more, taking small comfort in the fact that almost everyone is on the same page at the bizarre enigma that is her partner. 

Including her ten-year-old daughter. 

Maze grunts and rolls her eyes.  
  
"Time for gifts!" She declares as she tosses a small newspaper-wrapped object onto the table with a slight thud, and all the other adults lean back from the sound, surprised. Before anyone has had a moment to process, Trixie snatches the present up and unwraps it revealing a very real, very sharp switchblade. 

"Cool!" Trixie squeals, tracing her fingers along the handle. 

"Maze!" Chloe chastises. 

"What?" Maze scoffs, digging into her cake, a leisurely smile on her face as she watches Trixie's delight. 

"She can't have a knife yet. It's not safe!" Chloe looks around the table for any backup. 

Lucifer is too busy enjoying his cake; Dan is too busy trying not to laugh. 

Charlotte merely shrugs her shoulders at Chloe and is more than happy to watch the exchange for nothing more than its entertainment value. 

"Duh." Maze responds with cutting seriousness. "Knives aren't meant to be safe, Decker." 

~^^x^^~

Lucifer scrutinizes them pensively, feeling like an outsider as Daniel, Mazikeen, and the Urchin giggle near the water's edge. The sun is cresting over the horizon, casting a soft glow over the rest of the group, warm and bright. Soon Detective Douche and Charlotte will leave, and he, Maze and the Detective will take the little human to Santa Monica pier before returning to her home. Not a terrible evening for a celebration for her 10th trip around the sun, although he could do without the Detective's dismissive attitude around the accoutrement fiasco that was those abhorrent candles. Especially for such an extravagant cake.  
  
Or how she seemed to tease him constantly with her oblivious seductions.   
  
But what stuck with him now the most was when she said that all children find their family disappointing when speaking about her daughter. 

In relation to him.   
  
Chloe and Charlotte sit at the picnic table chatting amicably as Maze bends down and hands the little human another rock. Lucifer takes another sip from his flask as he watches Daniel finds his own, rubbing the dirt from it and moving into a familiar stance. 

"Like this Monkey," Her father says before winding his arm backwards and whipping the rock against the surface of the water. They all watch as it bounces off the surface two, three, four times before it falls into the lake. 

Beatrice laughs in delight and tries the same stance, only to have it fall directly into the water. 

Lucifer feels his fingers twitch against his leg as he watches the spawn sigh, and searches for another rock. The day feels slightly mundane but intensely familiar. The intimacy of the moment hits him, a crushing blow to his stability. Maze takes a flat pebble and throws it against the surface, her angle of release perfect for creating the maximum number of skips. She looks back at him with a look of sheer satisfaction, and he winces at her, angry for a moment long forgotten or yet to come.

The Urchin snakes her arm backwards, a pantomime of both Maze and Daniel's stances. She moves with all the power she can muster before the rock creates a plopping sound. A small, impressive splash is all that occurs instead of the desired outcome. 

"Wait one moment," Lucifer calls out before approaching Beatrice, "Urchin, think of it more like passing a Frisbee. I've seen one of those garish flying disk laying in your yard. Do you know how to use one properly?" 

She looks up to Maze and nods. Lucifer looks around on the ground before he finds two stones and hands the better of the two to Beatrice. Lucifer then sweeps the dirt from his own.

"Now the trick to water cutting is to spin the rock, and to do so, you must flick your wrist inward." 

Lucifer unbuttons his jacket with an easy flick of his wrist, giving himself more room to twist and move with his arm. As he rotates and releases the rock, it skips across the lake six times. He hums pleased and bends down to the Urchin, so they are face to face before turning her shoulders softly and staying squatted behind her. 

"I know you've been practicing with a Balisong trainer that Maze has gifted you. Imagine closing it at the last moment." 

He turns her around and places his fingers against her wrist, holding her arm out long and wide away from her body.

Lucifer shows her the action three times in practice before letting her go and backing away. 

She copies the steps once more before releasing the rock on the third motion and watching it skip twice before landing in the water the third time. Lucifer beams in satisfactory pride as she pumps her fist in the air before high-fiving Maze and hugging Daniel. The scene in front of him feels like it's playing out in slow-motion, enough so that Lucifer wonders if his brother is nearby. Beatrice shifts, homing in on him and coils herself around his long legs. 

She reminds him of a serpent in her own way.

"Thank you, Lucifer." Beatrice shares quietly, and he finds as he meets Daniel's gaze, it's appreciative and soft. 

"Think nothing of it, offspring. It was a pastime once forgotten, fondly remembered, so I suppose I should thank you." 

She pulls back from his waist, smiling brilliantly before Daniel claps his back, and she lets go to race back to Maze. 

"Nice job, man." 

And for once, Lucifer doesn't have any snide come back to help keep his walls remaining high. Instead, he watches as Mazikeen and the small human select more stones and proceed to skip them against the water, still catching the last rays of light from a star that he created before he understood the significance of it all. 

"Mizu Kiri." Lucifer mumbles to himself so low that the susurration of the wind drowns his revelation, the words slipping into the ether. 

He shouldn't be here, but he can't leave.

~^^x^^~

Later, when Trixie is asleep in bed, Ms. Alien tucked against a pillow beside her, Chloe herself long gone to her room. Maze sits in her room, light trickling through her open window.

She scrutinizes an unburnt yellow birthday candle in her palm.

Sighing, Maze stands up from the small armchair Chloe gifted her and moves to her dresser, removing a little treasure box from her drawer. The demon closes the chamber gently and lays the box on top. She pulls back the lid to find feathers, one black, three white. There, amongst a pressed maple leaf and a little drink umbrella, she places the candle among the reverent items before closing the lid. Exhaling, she picks up the box, opens her drawer again, puts it inside, and moves clothing over top of her treasures. She then gently closes the drawer once more, her fingers trailing the edges of the wood.

Maze flops into her bed and meditates on what possesses her to keep doing this, saving these little items, and how they seem to mean so much to her. 

~^^x^^~

It rarely happens, for things to align so perfectly that the gateway opens to him. Not that he doesn’t have the time, of course.

One would say, endless.

Focus falls between his eyes, two glowing stars wrapped in shadow, and in the Zeptosecond that all the celestials align, he gathers them together in his realm, arranged almost ceremonially.

In a perfect circle, Lucifer, Chloe, Trixie, an unknown child to the rest, Amenadiel, Maze, Ella, Michael and Charlotte all are posed in various positions, wherever they were when they briefly began to let their mind wander, daydream or sleep all timed perfectly with one another. That sliver of existence where they exist, here, with him. A raven lands on his shoulder.

"You did well, Matthew."

"I don’t like this boss," the raven complains, "Did you know her companions, your siblings may be involved? With the Lord of Hell won't this complicate things?"

"Pay it no matter, Matthew. In this universe, it’s different. He’s different. I didn’t think much of it, so I let him be. How was I to know his father would hide Her here? Cunning, really." He gently smiles as he looks down at the being at rest beside Lucifer, glowing with divinity, a halo of golden hair around her. "As for the rest of them... Does a caged bird know it is caged?"

The raven bounces its body in agreement, before he sows the seeds that will alter the course of all of matter and time, one that will shift the balance of power.

The Goddess known as Charlotte Richards may be the mother of Angels, one of the most powerful beings in all universes, and here she was with her children, blindly stumbling through interactions with a _power_ beyond her comprehension.

If they only knew.


	2. Prologue: The Trolly Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaC6R1ZzL-LaYuvGPpcWtRcc
> 
> FULL SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaD9thdXvGwpstPh7S0HLHdN
> 
> Fic Blog and Art: mizukiri.tumblr.com

_...I've learned to lose you can't afford to..._

_You already know how this will end._

This is not the end.

This is not the end of this story, nor is it the end for them. 

Although commonly agreed that time is not one line, if Chloe were to place exactly where this tale is, a yarn woven around their endless romance, she would reason this is the beginning of the third act.  
  
When she is having a hard time remembering why she continues to do any of this, she comes back to these forty-eight hours.

~^^x^^~

"Lucifer, we can stop this," Chloe states. 

She's appeared to him now to end this, end it where it always begins for her, at the Penthouse. 

Her Devil is a disaster in his half-open white shirt; his cuffs rolled high against his forearms. She watches him fidget with his onyx ring, bowing his head slightly. She is hardly surprised, considering this is how she left him months ago. She has only seen him this unsettled a handful of times, and although the last time she caused it, it still hurts her to see him this undone. 

Lucifer thrusts his fists into his pockets, looking around the once luxurious Penthouse.

A Penthouse that once felt like her home.

His gaze flits anywhere it seems, from half-full takeout cartons to kukri blades. The Detective does what she does best and detects, observing the narcotics dusting the top of his bar, pill containers laying open with their contents spread in various areas. There are a plethora of empty alcohol decanters. Lucifer still refuses to meet her imploring gaze. 

Chloe requires him to focus. They don't have much time, and she isn't sure how long this shame-spiral has continued, but she would not be surprised if it were just an ongoing deep dive from the second she told him they were over. Chloe had made a choice, and regardless of what she desired, she couldn't do it anymore.

"We?" Lucifer inquires.

Her soul hurts at how raw he sounds. She's done this. 

_How many times have we done this?_

"We. You, me, us. Always." Chloe confirms. At every word, she takes a step closer into the Penthouse, a step closer to him at the bar. Lucifer doesn't retreat.

_Small victories._

"What changed?" He asks.

"The same thing as always. Time." 

She refuses to regret her decision. Their brief separation gave her time to investigate her theories, hash out some of her own mysteries, the attacks she's suffered.

The missing time. 

She laments that they are too bound to each other, that there isn't any situation where they won't end up damaged if they don't end up together. 

_Forever_.

And when they do, they still end up harming each other regardless.

She walks a few steps more into a penthouse where she once felt welcome. Closer to him; her purpose.

"You admitted there were different universes. You told me John Constantine was here before but from somewhere else. And your Father pretty much confirmed it to Trixie when they were sneaking around behind our back."

Chloe smiles as she explores his warm, kind eyes. The Devil has the kindest eyes she knows. 

"Look, all I'm asking is how you can be so sure? I have my lifetime, you have yours, your Father has his time, and time itself runs differently on every plain you told me. When you were in Hell, thousands of years passed, but you came back to me."

You always come back to me.

"Lucifer, Amenadiel told me some beings can literally jump from universe to universe, not just celestials. They can't all have been living along the same timeline as us. So how could we try? You told me you did it for your Mom." 

A drawn silence hovers in the air as his jaw clenches, flexing muscle before his mouth drops open, less graceful than one would expect of him.

"I don't remember informing you of what was done about my mother."

"Really? Are you sure?" Chloe blinks, a chill running down her spine. 

"Frankly, no. I used to believe I had an erudite memory, but I don't know what to believe anymore. So, who's to say? You have made it known you have your own relationship with my brother, perhaps he let it slip during one of your little rendezvous."

She swallows, nodding in relief. Her aspirations and Lucifer's are one and the same, a knowledge which motivates Chloe to keep pushing this boulder up the hill, this Sisyphean task known as attempting to prevent their doom. She inches closer to him still until his belt buckle grazes the fabric of her shirt. 

His demeanour is one of stoic hope, but she perceives traces of fear emanating from his hands' tremor, her favourite obsession.

"Tell me now, then." Chloe's ocean eyes wash over him, and she feels him tremble, so near to her, still so irritable and lost. 

"Darling, it was a one-time arrangement. I used my sister's blade and sent it right in after her. A space vagina just birthed her right out of this universe and into the bloody next!" 

"Don't be crass just to throw me off." Chloe rolls her eyes in a way that feels familiar.

Them. 

"I could be crass in ways that draw you in." He ripostes, his thumb runs across her lower lip, and she quivers before is moving back to concentrate. Chloe witnesses his jaw contract anew before returning to his drink. 

She knows she could undoubtedly get lost in the next forty-eight hours between the sheets of his bed, but she considers this to be their best chance. 

The irony that the Devil is leading her to temptation, which could damn them all, is not lost on Chloe.

With those coffee-coloured eyes so deep, he drifts into her gravitational pull, close enough to need to look down to meet her gaze. She struggles to ascertain if he is angry or puzzled. 

"I'm serious. Why can't you take time to do a little recon work to see how other universes are fairing? Maybe in some, we've figured out the prophecy, or whatever THIS is with your Father. Maybe, one of your siblings takes over Hell or maybe some–" 

"It doesn't work like that, Detective." And his tongue is sharp around the word; it astonishes her how much he says just with an acerbic tone. 

_Stop it.  
You're irritating me with your incessant questions.   
You should leave if you cannot endure the basics. _

She counters the urge to cringe. It's not Lucifer causing her to recoil, standing there tall and elegant, even in his misery. Chloe's frustration stems from their incredibly complex bond, their life together. Her eyes flutter downwards, and she crosses her arms, her confidence be damned. In her peripheral vision, she can detect his enmity wane. Penitent for his initial reaction, he carefully steps closer to her. 

Chloe tries to sustain a modicum of confidence. The Detective is mindful that she can be so intense with him, but when it comes to the cosmos and his celestial family, she cannot see where Lucifer's bias ends and her unrealistic expectations begin. 

Nevertheless, she refuses to resign herself to what appears to be their fate.

"So how does it work? Do we need to start looking for a different warlock? or communicate with one of your siblin–" 

"I can't!" Lucifer shouts, with an exasperated sigh, slamming his tumbler against the bar, the amber fluid splashing onto his hand. Groaning, he absent-mindedly brings it to his mouth, sucking the alcohol off between his thumb and index finger, somehow managing to ignore the tension that stretches around them like a thick fog. 

Chloe feels electric heat surge through her and absently chews her lip. She's positive Lucifer is trying to divert her attention again. He turns to the decanter, still filled half full, and pours himself another. 

"You can't because you're not sure? Because I mean, we could start looking for someone who knows how. Or…" 

And you're doing it again, she realizes, her hands both rotating in small circles between him and herself, talking with your hands so that you don't cross your arms. Put your hands down.

As she inhales, Chloe settles on what she has discovered works for her, notably in all things Lucifer. 

She shuffles over slowly, tenderly entering his personal space, placing her hand on the forearm that still has a glass of whiskey attached to it. Sometimes Chloe feels as if she's directing a short film. She knows that it's an even more challenging game to play with him because he's unpredictable and anti-authoritative. Not to mention that she knows he would see it as a manipulation. Still, it continues to keep her spry, clever, fast. He keeps Chloe on her toes with all his little rebellions, things she used to compartmentalize in the same area of her life as Trixie's tantrums. Sometimes, when she is hopping the loop, she practices replicating each action, articulation, expression as close to the original as possible, only to watch vastly different reactions occur for whatever reason.

He's still so much of an enigma to her.

So, when did he start to listen to her so well? 

Stop.  
Sit.  
Leave me be.   
Stay.   
Come back.   
Never leave me.   
Always.

_Always._

Lucifer pulls his hand off the tumbler and laces slightly sticky digits through hers as she cautiously steps forward and gazes up at him. 

"I can't..." He continues, "Because it's not quantifiable, it doesn't operate like that. It's a divinity— A knowledge, a language unto its own."

Chloe muses about how Lucifer does not blink once he welcomes her into his personal space, choosing to instead gaze upon her with uninhibited reverence that she still doesn't believe she deserves. It doesn't escape her that he permits her to connect to him, in ways that no other being has been, since the beginning of all humankind.

"And while I know of it, and once knew it. I've been… cut off for quite some time." 

Tears sting in the corners of her eyes, and she must decide whether to turn her head away or let them spill. If she turns, she's sure he'll catch her jaw and turn her back, and then she may crack a little bit more. She loathes herself the most in these moments where her emotions get the better of her, and Lucifer seems to be comforting her when he reveals his inner pain. And yet, it's this level of empathy that Chloe possesses that draws him in like a moth to a flame. 

"Detective." He mumbles, a sad smile on his face as the thumb from his free hand gently mars the tracks on her cheeks, tears fall along the line of her mouth, and she can taste the salt of them. 

"Then what about Amenadiel and his self-actualization theory? So far, that had added up. I mean, he got his powers back and his wings. You said yourself you got your angel wings back when things were going well, and your devil face when you weren't… when things were…" 

"Yes, well," He laments, slowly moving his palm to the back of her neck to lace his fingers through her tresses. "I suppose there's merit to my brother's fanatical rantings." 

"I mean, time is merely a measurement, right? And Amenadiel has power over it. I bet that if he tried, he could learn how to reverse it. Possibly even jump through it, like ripples in the water or…" 

"Mizu Kiri." 

Chloe explores his face, her brows furrowing at the words. 

"Skimming stones over the water. It's what the Japanese call it." He explains as his gaze follows her lips, and she recognizes she's losing his focus. The ringing in her head is rising, and she worries they're going to lose each other again. It takes so much time to find one another when this happens. 

"I only wonder if that was your Father's end-goal for humanity also. That if we believe hard enough, that we too could self-actualize." 

"Yes, well, to be fair, darling, Amenadiel also thought Charlie getting a human cold meant that the child was completely mortal." He retorts before bowing his head and tracing his lips along with the shell of her ear. "He's not necessarily the sharpest sword in the armoury that is the Host." 

"But you are." Chloe huffs out with a trace of annoyance, trying to focus, his fingers falling through her hair downwards to splay against the small of her back. 

"Awe, be still my heart, Detective." Lucifer teases. 

"You're the Lightbringer for more reasons than just desire mojo and lighting up the damn sky." Chloe counters, her fingers slip into the back of his waistband, resting against the curve of his spine and presses him closer to herself. She watches him close his eyes and shivers, and she can detect he has been touch-starved since she left.

Good, I have his attention again. 

"We have to start somewhere." She pushes her cheek to his chest, listening to its thunderous beat, "Otherwise, there's an expiration date for all of us. I mean not just us, not just a human lifetime." 

She raises her face to meet his gaze, and as she looks up at him, he seems resigned. Those mahogany eyes are so cryptic and bottomless now, pupils wide, they seem to stare through her. The hair on the nape of her neck stands to attention. 

"Would that be so bad? Knowing it ends. Seems a bit like the trolly problem, darling, I'd rather we lose it all than to go on without you." Lucifer tells her before pressing his forehead to hers, shutting his eyes in the process. He lets go of her hand and rests it beside its partner at the base of her spine. 

This is not how she expected him to respond. 

She had expected him to find a way to break her focus with his lust. 

She's used to fits of petulant rage. 

She's even come to terms with the bouts of violence and mayhem, followed by periods of repentance. 

But giving up? 

"You can't mean that." She leans back and detaches herself from him, grimacing. 

She swears she heard him whimper, although he doesn't hold her captive, allowing her to control the conversation. He is a generous partner, even when he doesn't want to be. He won't open his eyes, and she knows that he's grounding himself for what's coming next. 

"Lucifer. Don't even joke about that." 

"I agree, Chloe. There's nothing funny about it." He opens them then, and although full of unshed tears, they are also his rage-fueled scarlet. 

"Lucifer, what about Charlie? Trixie?" 

She watches as he clenches and unclenches his jaw, nothing to say about the situation. She's concerned that he might ruin the moment by saying something she can't forgive. So far, the record would show there is nothing she hasn't forgiven, given time. 

After all, she's here, isn't she? After the absolute mess that became of them, the worst that they ever faced. She's come home to him. It's been months now for them. Months since she saw him here like this, just as upset and frightened. Months since she walked away after telling him, sometimes love isn't enough. But she's come back. It's her and him, forever. 

She will always come back. 

Until the end of time. 

And still, this is not how the narrative is supposed to go, this isn't their happily ever after, but she is determined to play with it, mould it, and show Him that they have some control. 

That she has equal footing here, with Lucifer. At this moment. This is their moment. 

"You're afraid," Chloe states matter-of-factly. 

She catalogues this as fact. 

She's human. 

He's the Devil. 

God reached a verdict. 

A wave of cacophonous ringing fills her ears before she scarcely hears his reply, "Of what? The end of time?" It's with such bravado that says so much more than the words. 

She takes note of the patronizing slight in his tone that tells her nothing and everything. 

And yet, what she says next, Chloe has no notion of where it comes from, but just like she knows he's frightened, she knows it to be a truth. 

"Of change." 

_Wake  
From your sleep  
The drying of your tears_

Within the Lux Penthouse, the strained vocals of one of Chloe's favourite songs echo out over his sound system. She had not been exaggerating when she told Lucifer that she used to listen to Creep on repeat. The first song that roped her into Radiohead had been the one she is currently listening to for what seems to be eons as part of a mourning ritual.

Although it has only most likely hours.

When she first discovered this song, she remembers it was at the end of Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet. She was fifteen when she had seen it in theatres. John Decker had appeared proud to take his daughter, an aspiring teenage actress herself, on one of his days off. Chloe ponders on how she used to think that true love should make you feel that way. 

Now she deems tragic romances as pathetically unrealistic.

Or how the naivete of youth never escapes us in the end. 

Her eyes are rimmed red; Chloe had shed all the tears she possessed hours ago. She peers down at the black and white keys; her fingers precariously run their length and their weight. She wishes she retained more from those lessons.

Knew more.

A bourbon perches on top of the guard rail, the way he used to leave it there. Traces of smoke from one of the cigarettes he left behind trails through the air languidly. 

Her sights lift to the haze trail as if her body has subsequently shifted to autopilot. She stretches out and takes it, bringing it to her lips before inhaling deeply, chasing the vice's flavour with another, before she swallows and exhales. But even as she tries, all that comes out is a tiny hiccup nearly reminiscent of a sob. 

Her head tilts back before two blue orbs flutter open to stare at the chandelier in the suite's center. It's knurling branches extending their tendrils down towards her, reaching out for her, just out of grasp. And anew, her tears spill forth from the corners of her eyes. Even on autopilot, she still has time to grieve. She wipes her face with the sleeve of the large dress shirt she is wearing. Chloe has no fear of ruining it; he won't be needing it anymore, not like she does. 

Lamenting, she seizes the glass and consumes the last of the golden liquid, permitting her tongue to run over her lips as she envisions his last kiss. Rising, she clutches the left side of the piano bench and drags it across his –correction– her Penthouse suite. The tone of the wood shrieking against the marble floor sounds like a cacophony against her ears, and she is spent. If she performs everything correctly from this moment forward, if she follows the plan, then eventually, she suspects there will be peace. 

She hauls it to the edge of the balcony before depositing it with grace and ease that she did not think she possessed. Two steps up to the ledge are all it takes before she finds herself flying into the LA skyline. 

The song is over. 

The Penthouse is silent.   
  


_Ain't it warming you_   
_the world gone up in flames?_

"CHLOE!" one-word rings out compellingly, shredding her chest to shreds. She forces her eyes open to what appears to be vexed brown spheres floating in a blurry face. 

"Maze, what?!" Chloe croaks, rubbing her face. 

_What time is it?_   
_Where are we?  
Weren't we all just in Echo Park? _

"You're doing it again. Knock it off. You're going to wake Trixie." The demon replies, somewhat quieter than when Chloe first woke up. The mentioning of Trixie's name causes her to sit up in her bed. 

_M_ _aze is trying_ ; she detects his accent in the back of her mind _. You may want to follow suit, Detective._

Right. 

Lucifer. 

"Chloe," Maze begins before perching on the end of the bed. "Seriously. What is it?" The sky outside her window bathes Maze in soft radiance, her face gentler than usual. Chloe can see the shades of concern wash across her face. "Was it that nightmare again?" 

The Penthouse. She wasn't in Echo Park for Trixie's tenth birthday. She and Lucifer were not fighting about… God? Trixie? Chloe is still not sure what happens in _that_ particular dream. 

No, the last thing she remembers is sitting at his piano. Tonight, she and Maze had gone dancing at Lux, Chloe remembers now, Amenadiel approached them to see how they were fairing. Exhaling, she runs her hand through greasy blonde locks and nods. 

"It's so stupid." Chloe hasn't told Maze specifically what the nightmare entails but has told her before it has components that don't make sense, choices she would never make. 

"I think I have to go back up there. When Dan takes Trixie. I guess I need to go back to the Penthouse." Chloe tells her, her voice sounds much calmer than her pulse feels. Sweat trickles down her spine, and the hair at the nape of her neck is soaked. 

"Yeah, of course. There's stuff there I need to pick—" 

"—Alone." She interrupts. She looks at Maze and sees the demon's walls go up. Maze jabs her tongue underneath her bottom lip as she stands to create distance, nodding in confirmation. 

"Right, of course. You do you—" 

"Maze—" Chloe tries to intervene again, but this time she grasps for Maze's wrist and sees the demon in front of her, stilling at the gesture. And it's because it's delicate and imploring that Maze sits back down tensely and listens. 

"You have been—" Chloe starts before reflecting thoughtfully. "The most amazing friend in the last month or so, and I'm not entirely unaware that you have your own unresolved pain and business with that place… with him." 

She pauses, taking a deep breath to steady her voice. "So, I mean this, with the utmost respect– I need to say goodbye to that suite. Because after that, I will not be going back up there. I don't want that Penthouse. I don't want Lux. I want you to have it, or Amenadiel, I don't care who, but I don't want it, I don't want any of it." Chloe breathes out in one long run-on sentence, but it's Maze gently squeezing her hand that stops her. 

"I don't want any of it either." Maze grunts to Chloe, "It's okay. If you need a night, you can have it, because I only need an hour, in my suite the next floor down. Amenadiel and I have talked, and we are here to help in any way we can. He's going to continue to manage Lux, and I'm going to help with the properties. But I don't want it either, Chloe." 

She shrugs her shoulders. "It wasn't given to us. He left it to you. And even if it had been–" Maze squeezes both of her hands, "We would feel the same way you do. We will help, but we support whatever you decide to do with it. Sell it so you can save it for Trix, watch it sink into the ground, whatever." 

Chloe grins long and slow at Mazikeen, slipping back down onto her pillow. 

Maze slides off the bed's side and peers down at Chloe, "You know why he was called the Lightbringer, right?" Rage barely suppressed in her tone. 

Chloe shifts on her bed; she sways her head no. 

"Because light like that— starlight? It burns everything that gets near it." The demon scathes. Chloe aches to ask Maze why she wants to go back to Hell so passionately, but her exhaustion hits her as she observes her roommate leave the room. It's hard enough with Lucifer gone; she can't imagine how she would explain to Ella, Trixie, and Dan if Maze had left also. 

Dan is picking up Trixie tomorrow after school, indicating that, barring any new cases, she should be able to prepare a bag in the morning and head over after work. 

She lies conscious until the sun crawls into her room, and she realizes that sleep isn't in her cards. She heads to her ensuite bathroom and switches on the light. Her image in the mirror startles her. 

Large dark circles appear under her glassy, red orbs, hair tangled in knots at the base of her neck. She sighs as she scrutinizes the fine lines that are beginning to appear around her mouth and is concerned by the permanent creases coming in on her forehead. 

_Detective_ , the voice buzzes in her head. _You're clearly not taking care of yourself, darling. There is a difference between vanity and self-care. At least participate._

She turns the knob to the shower and tests the temperature. She likes that her internal dialogue sounds like him. She's much kinder to herself in his voice. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for taking the time to check out this work, all kudo's and comments are an addiction. Check out the tumblr if you're interested in seeing concept art and random thoughts, and am always looking for fandom-friends.


	3. Prologue: My Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaBgZqKHLr64Ttuv5Rr0_okQ
> 
> Fic Blog and Art: mizukiri.tumblr.com

_Too young to know, too old to admit  
That you couldn't see how it ends._

As her vehicle crawls through the Los Angeles traffic, Chloe meditates over the last year, every minute detail shared, all the insatiated desire between them. She endeavours to reflect on their whole partnership in lieu of obsessing over their final moments before he abandoned her on the terrace. Lucifer had been serious in those last tender touches before leaving for Hell to save all humanity.

His last moments on Earth were selfless for his nephew.  
For everyone, really.

For her.

Chloe pulls up to the front of the building. Gracefully, she steps out of the car before handing the keys to Erik, the valet. Turning to her passenger door, she opens it to grab the overnight bag. Erik nods curtly to the woman he knows well as 'Detective' before delivering her car to the Penthouse parking spot. Chloe enters the club– her club (for the last month technically), and marches towards the viewing platform. Her aqua eyes scan the crowd like waves rolling over the ocean floor. She listens to a song play over the speakers, obviously not Lux's usual style, not that Chloe is complaining. She at least knows this one.

She fantasizes about noticing him down below, surrounded by a flock of followers. Their gaze would meet, time standing still for the moment. Chloe would smirk while she watched his face break into a wolfish grin. They would join in the middle of the dancefloor, their connection never failing. Chloe would hold Lucifer as close as she possibly could, whispering to him under the roar of music just how much she cherished him, that he was to never to leave her again. She imagines he would hum soft notes of a song into the crown of her head.

The only faces she recognizes are the staff.

Chloe huffs, her fingers trail along the edge of the banister before hesitating by the elevator. What could she possibly need from the Penthouse? Lucifer will not be there. She already has a few of his button-up shirts as mementos. What she is doing now is essentially punishing herself.

She doesn't want to think about her nightmares.

Returning to the club's front, Chloe apologizes to Erik, asking him to bring round the car. She will never come back here again. There are other clubs Chloe and Maze can drown their sorrows in; other places the tribe can dance.

She's going to investigate what it might take to have Lux transferred into Amenadiel's name. Had he gotten around to getting ID yet?

When she makes it back to her apartment, Chloe places the leather duffle on the stool beside the breakfast bar before grabbing herself a beer from the refrigerator.

Closing the door, she texts Dan asking about coming to pick up Trixie tomorrow (for just the day) after she gets a good night's rest. _Tomorrow_ she thinks, _tomorrow I'll take the day off. Take Trixie shopping, maybe get a haircut._  
  
Chloe will live for tomorrow because, after all, tomorrow is a new day.

~^^x^^~

Lucifer is circling above a hoard of revolting Lilim who have taken up residence in a New York-based hell-loop. He's tracked them here, to a crowded subway stop above ground. From what he can tell, they may be in Greenwich Village. The sign on the building says the Hudson Tunnels, a PATH lamp glowing outside, but it's been such a long time since Lucifer has travelled anywhere other than Los Angeles or Hell that he's unsure of his exact location.

He takes note that he may have to spend a little one-on-one time with Furfur, a clingy and wretched demon, currently serving him as one of his valets.

_Smile and charm, Lucifer, remember to ask the right questions until you know for sure that the needy little worm isn't the source of these leaks of information._

In the past, Lucifer would have just sliced through Furfur from sternum to navel and pulled his innards out to allow the hellhounds to feast. Nonetheless, some of the lessons he learned on Earth centuries ago have managed to temper him, reminding him that although he should be cautious, having allies is essential.

Especially now without Maze.

The demons run/slither/stalk down another flight of stairs further downwards into the hell-loop, far from where Lucifer can reach from the sky, thus beginning his descent. Once on the ground, he runs towards where he last had seen the mutinying hoard, accidentally running into three women— demons. The hair raises on the back of his neck, a fierce shudder racking his body. Lucifer glares back at them. All brunette, the two on the sides flank one woman in the middle; blue eyes stare back at him in shock, her extremely long hair ombre into the colour of rich honey as she shakes her head confused.

"My apologies, ladies. I'm in a bit of a hurry." He offers as he continues to hustle backwards. Why is he apologizing to his _demons_? Why do they look so familiar? He turns away from them as the revolting Lilim scream at their kin, who continue to play their roles dutifully inside this loop; Lucifer's attention is lured away once more.

"My King, we promise! The Lilim know not to fight with his Highness!" They bellow, cowering as they realize they have met the end of the road. Lucifer grimaces, a sneer painted on his lips, his teeth bare.

"Perfect! This shan't take long then."

He unveils his wings and begins to stalk menacingly towards them. The demons remain ensnared in the dead-end space of the loop.

The roar of his wings drowns out any other noise, and once he is finished, the silence around him becomes deafening. He stands there, barely moving as shiny trickles of viscera slide off stone and marble. His primaries are slick with their blood, saturated black.

Lucifer marches through the hell-loop, nodding to the manifestations of humans around him, his subjects all playing their part the way they were intended to. He holds his head high, remembering his precarious balance between fair, righteous and brutal.

Kingly.

It is so tiring, a millennium down, only an eternity to go.

He mostly tries not to think of the Detective.

Mostly.

~^^X^^~

Since retreating to Hell, Lucifer has yet to dream.

To dream would require sleep, and sleeping is a luxury he cannot afford in Hell. Partaking in such extravagance can be more than a tad bit difficult when you're re-establishing dominance without a bodyguard to watch your back.

Therefore, the notion seems absurd if he were ever to take the time to reflect on it. Lucifer considers this to be a fact, one of his many truths, but it's been so long since he has slept, a millennium even, that he has genuinely forgotten that even the Devil needs to regenerate his strength through a period of respite, a stasis of rest Lucifer can only achieve perched upon a quartz throne here in this ashen grave.

For the first time in centuries, he dreams.

**_The demons are there._ **

**_As they run, Lucifer feels gleeful, his mouth hurts he smiles so wide. The Lilim run with sheer terror on their faces, but they laugh, manically and methodically. They skip, a few feet ahead of him. Skip-skip-skipping away for their lives. He makes it to the moment where he bumped into the woman before noticing anything awry. At this stage, he takes the time to drink in the three of them, surrounded by muted brethren.  
  
The first woman has sleek black hair piled high on her head in a loose pony, her dark brown eyes deeply set by smoky makeup. She wears a pouty smirk, a beauty mark to the right of her upper lip. Her leather-clad arms cross over her chest as she watches him moving away from them with a disapproving glare. _ **

**_The next is is shorter than the rest, curvaceous. Her doe brown eyes gawk at Lucifer with a gleeful surprise behind cat-eyeglasses, a smile on her features as she holds her hands in front of her plaid skirt._ **

**_But when he looks to their companion in the back, taller than the rest, their eyes lock for the briefest of seconds. Deep oceans of blue pull him into her. A white light washes over him in waves. He knows those eyes, that face. She looks younger than when he left, over a thousand years ago now._ **

**_The Detective._ **

**_Chloe._ **

**_She smiles at him wide in recognition, her companions, the same. A wall of pain and nausea wracks through his insides as he blinks back tears, the wind knocked out of him._ **

**_"How?"_ **

**_A vortex of colour wraps around the three women, the Detective at its center. She tilts her head as though the very notion he preposes is amusing._ **

**_Endearing._ **

**_As though this moment, here in Hell, is normal, orthodox. For Lucifer to think anything otherwise is a fallacy._ **

**_"The whole of all the universes couldn't stop me from finding you."_ **

Lucifer wakes on his throne, stretching before he returns to his duties. He lands within one of the never-ending corridors of rooms of this hotel for the damned; he, their infernal caretaker.

As he stalks the corridors of pillars, he clearly hears music drifting towards him from one of the loops to his left.  
  
 _… loneliness… like a heartbeat, drives you mad, in the stillness of remembering what you had…_

Thoughts of music usually help, but here he is songless, an empty void, which no music can fill. His contempt recedes into him, always looming, lurking in the shadows of his mind. Lucifer proceeds onward and away from the song, beginning to wonder how much correlation is coming into play or if he's becoming fixated on her again, the way he had been millennia ago when he first arrived.

He had seen the Detective, appearing to him full of brilliance, like the light at the end of his proverbial tunnel. Yes, the dank surroundings of Hell consumed him as it always had, engulfing him in the misery that comes along with it until all he could think of was his last declarations to her ringing through his ears.

_My first love was never Eve.  
It was you, Chloe.  
It always has been._

He had been haunted by how she smelt when embracing him, warm, also sweet; floral scents mixed oft with notes of cinnamon. He is acutely aware of how his hand would twitch with the longing to touch her hair.

Lucifer had once thought she was one of his celestial kin, that his Father had sent her. How right and wrong, he turned out to be. Then she was just the _Detective_. Chloe Jane Decker.

Lucifer hates labels, considering he has so many of his own, and yet throughout his relationship with literature, he had been appalled with how humans romanticized the guardian angel archetype. He had thought it foolish for the most part, considering most angels barely cared enough for humans to do anything good or gracious towards them without his Father's intervention. Out of all of the Host, barring Father, he was the one who seemed to be the most drawn to humans and their flawed nature. Free Will had been what he worshipped once he no longer praised dear old Dad's name.

After that waned, it had returned anew when he met Chloe, and even after all he had learned about her being a gift, he felt she had been so much more. That Chloe had been his guardian angel; no, she deserved so much more than he could give her. All he could do was leave to keep Hell from overflowing onto the mortal plane.

As he wanders the catacombs of endless rooms, he ruminates on what seeing her in his dreams could have possibly meant. Even as a celestial, Lucifer was never one for superstition. Considering how infrequently he slept, he shrugs off the odd nightmare as most likely just that, a dream of the home he cherished. A home he presumes he will never see again.

And at that moment, Lucifer turns to his newest passion, studying loops where he finds the punishment seems undeserved. Suppose he is meant to spend the rest of his eternity here being their warden. In that case, he may as well see if he can do something about the poor souls that do not understand the concept that their door is unlocked _for a reason_.

All they must do is end their own painful torment by letting go.

Then again, not everyone could be as successful as Dr. Linda Martin.

~^^x^^~

"Mom, that was great!" Trixie hollers from the car's back seat, casually licking the vanilla ice-cream Chloe just purchased her. They are stopped at a red light, Fleetwood Mac plays on the radio, and Chloe clears her throat before she gazes back into the rear-view mirror. The rainclouds begin to open up overhead, the sound of thunder booming in the distance.

"What was your favourite part?" Chloe smiles as she taps her fingers along to the beat against her steering wheel. The sun peeks out behind the gray clouds, sunset only an hour away, creating a glow that warms her.

"I think… Jumanji."

"Yeah?" Chloe challenges. The traffic-light changes, prompting Chloe to accelerate into the intersection, moderately gaining speed up to the speed limit. They had spent the better part of the day shopping, going to a film, getting treated to haircuts.

"Yeah, I mean… Thanks for the new shoes, but I like it when we do stuff together."

 _You're listening to 113.FM. It's your music. Your Life…_ booms over the speakers in the sedan, and Chloe switches it off to talk to Trixie over the sound of the windshield wipers.

"I'm glad we didn't go see CATS." Chloe starts.  
  
"Even Taylor Swift being in it didn't change my mind," Trixie laments between swiping the ice cream with her tongue.

"Cat butts!" Chloe yells back to her, as a call-back to one of their previous conversations.  
  
"I believe you mean cat _butt-holes,_ Mom."  
  
"Trixie, I want you to know I love you so much I would take you to see a two-hour film about cat butt-holes if that version actually existed. These are the sacrifices you make as a mother."  
  
"Sure, Mom," And Chloe watches Trixie roll her eyes like a master, "Like you wouldn't be singing along."  
  
"Just because I like musicals Trixella, doesn't mean I delude myself into thinking I can sing." Chloe looks back with a chuckle and basks in the glory that is her daughter.  
  
"If it makes you happy, you should just do it anyways, as long as it's not hurting anyone."

"Would taking you to the pier make you happy? I don't think there'd be any harm in that."

"That would be lit!!!" Trixie squeals.

"We can't stay too long, though. School in the morning, and no Ferris Wheel or coaster in a thunderstorm."

"What? You mean I can't gamble my safety on rollercoaster and Ferris Wheel rides? Momma, don't be _boring_."

"No, baby, I would be pretty choked if you were struck by lightning."

Trixie sighs, "But moooom, how will I ever get my superhero origin story if you always expect me to be safe?"

Chloe rolls her eyes at Trixie in the mirror before they both burst out in laughter. They needed this time together to remind Chloe that there was more to life than work, missing Lucifer, all while being present for Trixie. It's been a long time since Chloe has had the chance to realize just how mature her daughter has always been, let alone has become. Trixie's dark, dry humour consistently managing to break Chloe into a smile or laugh. And today was the first day Chloe felt she was living again, that she could just be.

She recognized even Trixie could sense the difference.

"I love your new hair," Trixie states out of the blue, as children oft to do to break the silence.

"Oh yeah?" Chloe responds as she smiles back through the rear-view mirror, "You don't think getting bangs was a bit–"

Before Chloe can finish the sentence, a revolting, crunching sound is not only heard but felt, in a cacophony all around her. Her body contorts to the shape of the vehicle that has passed almost through her driver's side door, pushing the metal into her left side. An airbag crashes into her face, her sight going dark. All she can hear is Trixie shrieking for her before the world around her goes dark.

Other cars come to a screeching halt from a distance. A woman calls 911. A relatively nondescript being stands beyond the crash, observing it with an unreadable gaze. His trenchcoat flutters against a gale of wind as he continues to stare at the wreckage. A small smile spreads across his face before he bows his head and walks away.

_You taught me the courage of stars before you left_ _  
How light carries on endlessly, even after death_

The Devil and the Detective sit together on Lucifer's piano bench, something she's grown quite accustomed to over the years, her hair in a bun piled high on her head. She wears what he likes to call 'her sleepwear,' but really, it is just one of his already worn white dress shirts. She thought he would tease her about it, but lately, she is working to be more forthcoming when Lucifer asks her what she desires. That is why, when Chloe asked if she could wear his day-old shirts, barring blood or other things wrong with them, he obliged her without complaint. She's currently sitting cross-legged in stark white, eating Chinese out of the takeout container and watching his hands with morbid fascination.

"Are you happy, here with me?" Lucifer asks her after finishing a haunting instrumental piece, which she wouldn't be able to identify even if he has told her its name a hundred times.

"What a silly question! I won't even dignify it with an answer," Chloe slyly responds. She unfolds her long legs and moves towards the edge of their seat.

"Oh, really, Detective, silly, is it?" He responds, playing along. She peers over at him, dressed in his best black attire. Lucifer's arm snakes around her middle and pulls her closer towards him.

"Yes, it's silly, ridiculous even." Chloe chastises, "I'm starting to think you are trying to insult my integrity."

Bristling, she feigns offence while placing her hand on his chest to maintain a modicum of distance. Chloe mockingly uses her other hand to throw against her forehead. He allows her to turn from him slightly before pulling her against his chest. She can feel the hard line of his frame against her back, and she fights the urge to shiver as his breath tickles the back of her neck.

"Then I beg your pardon, darling. It was never my intention to insult a woman of your stature," Lucifer murmurs against her ear, and she closes her eyes and swallows. Chloe feels him take the takeout container from her hand and place it away from them and the piano.

"Oh? and just what is my stature?" Chloe asked him curiously, turning again to face him. Lucifer has managed to get a bit of lemon sauce on his thumb, and she catches him about to suck it off the graceful digit. His eyes aglow, and she feels an aching swell inside her.

"My Queen, of course." Slowly he lowered his head and gently brushing her lips with his own, showing her a devotion she knew that she had been lacking, that for as long as she can remember, they have held for each other.

She laughs against his lips and remembers in the back of her mind somewhere that they haven't done this yet. But it feels so familiar, pondering how many times they've done this before.

Slowly she reaches up and wraps her hands around the edges of the lapels of his jacket.

"And what are your intentions?" She said, looking up into his eyes. His beautiful chocolate brown eyes that shifted from shades of amber to onyx and crimson but no matter what colour, could hold her lost in a trance forever and more.

His eyes brighten the way they do when she knows he's going to say something crass, his face breaking into a grin that could rival the Cheshire cat before she is claiming his lips with her own in part an act of defiance, part supplication. It's more passion-driven than their last, but it feels timeless like the love she feels for him, here, like this.

When she pulls away like she's drowning for oxygen, her eyes remain closed, although she can feel his forehead pressed against her own. 

"Yes." She mumbles.

"Yes?" He asks, confused.

"Yes, I am happy here with you. You. Me. Us..." She responds, answering the question that had been plaguing his mind. For now, she knows that no matter what she has done in the past, he needs to hear her say it, even if he is gone. He needs to hear the words before he believes.

Again, those eyes turn soft, and he leans back down to kiss her.

She closed her eyes in anticipation when a wave of excruciating pain swept through her body like a wave. Her chest is damp. She feels like she can't breathe.

"Chloe? What's wrong?" Lucifer asks her as she begins to crumble before him, her arms pressed down on the keys of his piano, letting out a chaotic dissonance. She opens her eyes to see his horrified expression; his body is recoiling at the sight of her as he begins to pull away.

"Lucifer?" She queries before the world around her goes dark.

~^^x^^~

Dan doesn't recognize he's speeding until he nearly misses the hospital entrance and slams on the brakes. He glances over to Ella, who looks just as impatient as he feels. Gradually, he has the car crawl into the lot close to the emergency room parking.

"Why don't we switch spots? I can look for parking so you can go." Ella offers, placing her hand on his forearm. Dan instantly halts the vehicle into park, much to the dismay of the drivers behind him.  
  
"Thanks, Ella," he offers. Unbuckling, Dan slips out the door, and half jogs backwards away as Ella rushes to climb into the driver's seat.

"I'll meet you inside." He turns to head towards the emergency room entrance.

 _It was bad,_ they said. _Be prepared,_ Lieutenant MacKay had told Dan when he had phoned. _And see if your kid saw the vehicle, let us know. So far, we don't have enough information to even put out a BOLO on the bastard._

Dan approaches the ER entrance, analyzing the waiting room to find Maze leaning against the wall. A dower looks etched on her features. As soon as their eyes meet, her expression changes slightly, recognition sparking behind her eyes.

"Trixie?" Dan exhales as he approaches the bounty hunter, and she nods in greeting.

"Trix is in the washroom. I'm waiting for more information on Chloe. I would have fought harder, but when I realized that they'd kick me out and that Trix—"

Before Dan realizes what he is doing, he's pulled Maze into his arms.

"Thank you." He chokes out, shivering as he holds her close. He blinks back, stinging tears, "Really, I can't…"

Maze is deadly still in his arms before he perceives the slightest sense of her relaxing. She smells like coconut oil and leather; it is an odd combination but not unpleasant. Maze's hands slowly go up and wrap around Dan's back, her palms gently resting against them.

"How is Chloe?" He asks while drawing back, and he reckons his eyes appear tired, much older than they used to.

"All I was told is that they notified her next of kin and were waiting for—"

But Maze doesn't get an opportunity to finish what she was saying. The door beside the wall opens, and Trixie, eyes bloodshot, a goose egg on her forehead, appears from behind the door.

"Trixie," Dan exhales her name, precious on his lips, and Trixie begins to weep before he lifts her into his arms.

"Daddy!" She sobs, clutching him tightly. He squeezes his daughter and peers from forlorn eyes to Maze.

"Dad, the car is totalled. I watched them get Mommy out with the Jaws of Life. That's what the paramedics called them. Is she going to be okay?"

"I don't really know Monkey. I need to find out, but first, I needed to see if you were okay. Has the doctor seen you yet?"

"They checked everything at triage when I came in and said that I could wait out here until there was a bed available inside the ER, but they took Mom in right away. Someone sat with me until Maze came."

He nods as he listens to her, allowing her legs to slide down to the floor, placing her down.

"How can I help?" Maze urges Dan, her eyes searching his for direction. "I want to hurt something, so tell me, what do I do?"

Dan finds himself softening.

"We wait, Maze. I know. I get exactly how you feel, but there isn't anything we can do but be patient and keep up-to-date on what Chloe needs."

"He should be here." She trembles in front of him. Her eyes look like they are starting to well-up. Dan wants to dismiss Lucifer, call him down, but he's aware that Trixie is listening intently to his left and still has a fondness for him as well.

"Yeah, well, he isn't. I mean, I could ask you to call him, but you and Chloe both act like that's impossible."

She shoots a look at him that's guarded and disturbed, but she swallows, one of the tears falling treacherously from her left eye. Maze's face remains inscrutable before they hear Ella call down the hallways towards them.

"Maybe you're right. Chloe and I can't… But maybe if I talk to Amenadiel—" Maze is interrupted, however, by the sound of Ella gasping.

Her eyes are as wide as saucers, her gaze unwavering to the ER doors, where all eyes look to see Chloe walking out into the waiting area and making her way towards them. There doesn't appear to be a scratch on her, which is hard for Dan to process if he accounts for what Trixie told him.

"Hey everyone," Chloe delicately offers before Trixie is sprinting to her, sobbing all over again. Chloe bends down to hold her daughter in her arms and runs her hands through Trixie's hair.

"It's okay, baby, I'm okay." She places her hands under her daughter and lifts her up, looking over to Dan. Chloe's hold on Trixie looks awkward due to their daughter's height, but she doesn't weigh much, and it's the type of embrace that she needs right now.

"How…" Dan begins, and the Detective shrugs, a watery smile appearing on her face. "Just lucky, I guess."  
  
She spins Trixie ever so slightly left and right before she too needs to place the preteen down on the ground. Trixie grasps her mother's hand in her own. Chloe palms her bullet necklace, her eyes glazed over in thought.

Dan shakes his head once more.

"This can't be possible." Dan scans his ex-wife head to toe.

"Yeah, it's a real miracle," Chloe mutters, and Maze shoots her an inscrutable look.

"What did the doctor say?" Dan asks.

"Well, he said that I might be sore in the morning, but other than that, I am fine. I'm more concerned about Trixie, though," Chloe says, drawing attention to the lump on Beatrice's head.

"Has the doctor seen you yet, Monkey?"

Trixie shakes her head as they hear her summoned from the nurses' desk. "Espinoza, Beatrice?"

Chloe and Dan turn to the voice, Chloe nodding to Dan and asking if he would take her in and she would meet up with them. Dan watches his ex-wife, weighing her reasonable request before nodding and heading into the emergency room with his daughter, attempting to shift his focus on the one who needs his attention at this moment.

Chloe waits for the doors to close behind them before looking at both Ella and Maze.

"What?"

"Are you sure you're okay, Chloe?" Ella asks her, her big brown eyes scrutinizing Chloe's face and body, looking for any signs of injury.

"I'm sure, Ella. I look better than I feel, I'll be sure to book appointments with a massage therapist and physio just in case, but really you can head back to the office. I'll bring Dan home with Trixie and me."

Ella goes to interrogate Chloe more before Maze prevents her.

"Come on, Ellen, I'll give you a ride back," She states while making eye contact with Chloe.

Most people would have been surprised with how close Maze and Chloe have gotten over the last two months. They have spent more than enough time together to develop an almost uncanny ability to read each other's body language and guess each other's thoughts with accuracy.

Chloe waits as Maze slaps her hand down on Ella's shoulder and lead her away from her and the rest of the Emergency waiting area. She can see that Maze has a deluge of inquiries of her own and that once she and Chloe get time alone, she will be demanding answers.

Chloe doesn't know what she's going to tell Maze. She doesn't understand it either.

She can't recall anything but the doors in front of her and pushing through them to see Dan and Trixie waiting for her.

~^^x^^~

"How do you feel?" Dan asks, inching closer to Chloe on the couch. He looks down at Trixie, who is now asleep in his ex's arms. He softens as he watches her gazing down at their daughter, safe from the magical allure of club owners and their chosen profession.

Sighing, Chloe looks down at Trixie, "Like I've been dragged down ten miles of bad road, but other than that, my head feels a lot better."

He assesses her face and body, not under the male gaze but one of concern and awe. Trixie's lump is green and yellow, so tight and shiny that they're both glad there isn't a cut on it, or it would scar.

"I'm supposed to wake her up every hour over the next twenty-four."

"That's why I'm here, remember? So, you can get some rest as well."

"I almost killed our baby," Chloe whispers, and his heart hurts for her. Dan thinks of all the things he's done in their relationship that have ended up with Chloe or Trixie in danger and cannot allow her to believe in such utter bullshit.

"Chloe, that's not true at all. That car ran a red light and was doing ten over the limit. We're blessed that nothing more happened."

Chloe nods, her ability to blink feels currently robbed from her. She allows the tears to spill.

"Like some sort of divine intervention." He adds, and he watches her eye twitch. The skin around it tightens and flexes before she bites her lip and begins to nod her head.

"Yeah, yeah, you're right."

"What are you going to do for a vehicle until insurance figures it all out?"

"Well…" Chloe sighs, rubbing her eye with the heel of her hand, "I still have the Mustang Lucifer bought me about a year ago. So, I suppose there's that at least."

He nods and pulls her closer to himself to hold her. Chloe welcomes the touch, and there they are, just the three of them. Dan isn't startled when he feels warm drops of tears against his arm or the sound of muffled sniffling underneath his chin until there are no tears left to spill. After, the only sound in the room is that of Trixie's breathing as she sleeps in Chloe's arms and the hum of the television that creates a soft glow in the otherwise darkened living room.

Dan thinks about the last time he had hugged someone was earlier today. He thinks about Maze and how it felt to have her gently return the sign of affection. How hard the last month has been for both her and for Chloe. He considers why they both are so affected by Lucifer’s absence.

"Chloe, this is going to sound so dumb, but I am going to regret it if I don't ask…"

She looks up at him and pulls back out of his embrace. She smiles sadly, "No time like the present."

"Did… I mean, no offence. But all evidence pointed to this being a targeted hit and run. So, I have to wonder, I mean I kinda miss him too but is this because of—"

"No," Chloe interrupts, but there are no indications of anger in her voice. "No, this doesn't have anything to do with Lucifer, at least that he knows about."

"Then, who?" Dan asks her, "What's going on?"

"I don't know. I can't really remember a lot, except for one thing." Chloe tells him, looking back down towards Trixie in her arms.

"What's that?"

"He'll be back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's some chapter art to go with this Prologue part and the first, (I never know if people wanted them embedded at the end or not.) Let me know in the comments what you prefer!


	4. Prologue: Like a Unicycle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaCXp0JFzDx6O8kmOwxLAvHc
> 
> Fic Blog and Art: mizukiri.tumblr.com
> 
> Happy Valentines Day FicFam! I'm working on a chapter about Valentine's day right now (Chapter 16). I've been so oddly research obsessed I'm keeping a 2020 journal with a made up Dan/Chloe work schedule and Trixie schedule. 
> 
> Do you ever get that focused with your writing?

_Hear you falling and lonely, cry out  
Will you fix me up? Will you show me hope?_

_You already know how this will end._

_You just have to remember._

Inside the Penthouse, one of Chloe's favourite songs play. Her head tilts back before her eyes flutter open to stare at the chandelier in the suite's center. Its knotted branches extend their tendrils down towards her, reaching out for her, just out of grasp. She wipes her face.

Rising, she grabs the left side of the piano bench she had previously been occupying.

She drags the bench to the edge of the balcony before dropping it with a modicum of grace that she did not consider herself to possess. Two steps up to the ledge are all that is necessary before she finds herself flying into the LA skyline.

She believes she is flying, or is she falling? Chloe counts her heartbeats: One, two, she has always had faith in this part of the plan, and when she gets to six, she promptly opens her eyes—the skyline colourful and broken in fractal patterns. The air no longer whips past her in caressing gales but instead embracing her like a warm cocoon. 

"You rang?" A voice coolly inquires.

Chloe moves in the direction of its melodious sound. A celestial being stands to the side, their wings folded behind their back— wings with colours ranging from white to dark ash, resembling that of a falcon. The angel stares through her, one eye a steel grey, the other so dark it appears black, both cold.

Although they give her their attention, they are running a bow along the strings of the violin. 

"Did you know the earliest horns were made of many different types of materials? Bone, wood, ivory, as long as they were curved, they could play a note." The celestial shifts their body, and the song changes from an upbeat arrangement to something more dower and dramatic.

"As soon new instruments were invented, I was far more interested in string arrangements than horns, but alas, once a reputation of a celestial is settled, it's hard for you humans to change your perceptions. I am sure our mutual friend would agree, considering for as soon as they were made, he abandoned strings for keys. I dare say he always knew how to play the Clavicembalo."

Chloe doesn’t know how to respond to that, and so she doesn’t.

"Figures He would send the messenger," Her lips curl around the words with such vitriol that she surprises herself. "Gabriel?"

The tall blonde angel's sneer is confirmation enough.

"Come now, Detective Decker, you must know by now that not much can pry Father away from His important work."

"Get the kids to do the easy errands, am I right?" She retorts.

Gabriel just glares dispassionately through her with nothing to add. 

"Had to be important enough to send you, though." She adds with a little more confidence. "After all, I didn't even pray, which adds to my theory behind motive."

"And what motive is that Detective Decker?" Gabriel asks her, an air of boredom in their tone. The violin continues to shift in melody.

Chloe giggles as the cuffs of Lucifer's shirt cover her palms, her hands lifting to her mouth to hide the involuntary behaviour.

"You know... Your Father, not wanting me to go to Hell." She makes sure to choose her words wisely, knowing full well that any misspoken syllable could change this kismet's direction. 

Gabriel smiles briefly, flicking the instrument out of existence. 

"Now, we are finally speaking. What makes you think that I came here to stop you from entering the Kingdom of Hell?" They sigh, beginning to show obvious signs of boredom with their conversation. "After all, the choice is yours."

"Exactly. The choice is mine, and yet you are here to stop me." 

"Perhaps Father wanted to give one of his miracles a second chance? Before they damn their soul for all eternity. He's involved himself in human matters before. Not for millennia, but everyone does love to drone on about just how special you are, Detective Chloe Decker. The mortal human who tamed the Devil himself."

"Second chance? Please, this must be like… the third? That I can think of. Well, that I think I know of. I imagine it's a lot more. I've been given far more chances than any of you ever have." The fabric of Lucifer’s shirt scratches against her neck, and the heat from her necklace flushes her face more than her anger.

"You forget your other chances were facilitated by my rebellious sibling and not Father's divine intervention. So certain were you that you risked the fate of your child? Surely young Beatrice would suffer the loss of her barely available, overworked mother?"

"You can't have her Gabriel, not to mention you're insinuating I genuinely thought I was in any danger. Besides, your rebellious sibling is why we are here, is it not? My guilt is too strong. There would be no way I could enter the Silver City." 

"Well, listen to you, speaking like you understand the culture." 

"What is that sound?" Chloe asks. Gabriel frowns, "My Lady, don't lose focus, please, not yet."

But the strings' sound is the same as the one filling her head to her left. Chloe turns, to see herself sitting with Lucifer at his writing desk; a scene playing out before her eyes.

_Their case files are laid out in neat, orderly piles in front of them on the mahogany surface. The leather chair creaks with every movement as she shifts on his lap, focusing on the paper she's reading. With a quivering exhale, his fingers find purchase in her hips, bare against his own._

_Lucifer can smell her hair products, her perfumed scent, like vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon. He smiles before closing his eyes and leaning back. Chloe shifts slightly to pick up another one of the files. His white shirt covers her upper body; it' is presently the only piece of clothing separating them. He stifles a moan as she picks up her folder and leans back against him, sending tremors through his body. The soft sensation of her hair meeting his shoulder and neck, her spine runs along his chest, and he slips one of his hands under her shirt, snaking up her chest to rest against her cheek._

_"Detective, do you ever shut that gorgeous brain of yours off?" He murmurs into the shell of her ear, seeing that she's flush with perspiration, her hair curling from the humidity . Humidity they create together._

_"Lucifer." Is her breathy reply. The words are so close, he can feel the balmy air against his cheek._

His eyelids flutter.

He prepares a steely gaze before he pops one eye open.

"What?" He growls impatiently.

Furfur wrings his little hands in front of him, his eyes darting from side to side before peering up at him. Lucifer gently lifts himself into a more upright position, trying to ease his desire.

"There is a warlock here to visit you, Sire." The demon whines, shifting impatiently from foot to foot, standing hesitantly beside him.

Lucifer straightens and twitches at the thought, surmising quickly just who he thinks could be waiting on him.

"Alive?"

"It… seems that way, my Lord? He wasn't inside any loop when found. He was heading towards the Spire when we caught him." Furfur swallows before raking his hand through his long locks. "He insisted you know one another?" Furfur's voice lilts higher as he winces in subjugation to his King. "   
  
"He called me a mingy little wanker?"

Lucifer hums, tapping his fingers against his thigh before standing and making his way down to his waiting guest. That's twice now he's dreamt about Chloe, and he thinks he needs to discuss it with someone who understands more about the mortal aspect of crossing over than he does.

And if Constantine can't help, he knows exactly where he can find a knock-off version of his favourite doctor.

~^^x^^~

After John Constantine's visit, Lucifer saw his routines fall back into place as the years stretched into centuries. The images of Chloe, her blue eyes, a look of surprised etched into her glowing features become a memory which he fondly reflects on when he has demons to punish or when he must explain to new souls their horrid fates.

To say he abhorred his position would be an outright lie, especially when those guilty of horrific crimes cross his path. But after watching Chloe treat criminals with dignity and listen to their families, lovers, children, or friends confess their love and acceptance of them as they were arrested for murder, he's found it increasingly more difficult to sit back and watch the self-inflicted torture of the damned.

As he paces through his kingdom, darkness surrounds him, not unlike the suit he wears. The putrid air is damp against his flesh, the smell of sulphuric acid in the atmosphere. He clasps the fabric of his jacket closer to his frame.

As he walks the hallway of rooms, listening to the screams and whimpers inside, a singular voice rings louder than any other.

 _"Lucifer."_ It whispers.

_"Lucifer, I won't abandon you. I won't let you abandon me."_

It sounds too much like her for him _not_ to investigate, and he rounds a junction coming upon a large intersection in Hell, a path away from the tall spires of rooms and corridors. He moves towards the lake of sulphuric acid, the rotting souls of guiltless, slivers of the primeval, sits beyond the dead brush.

"Detective?" Lucifer calls before hesitating and trying again. "Chloe?"

A flashbang of bright blue light burns beyond the horizon, a meteor flickering in and out of existence, as it falls with speed to the ground. Lucifer knows that even if he were to take flight he would reach it in time.

The streak of light echoes in and out of existence before it crashes into the ground, silent and impossible. Lucifer shifts over, sourcing the energy within him and shifting his reality so he appears at the crash site.

But there is nothing, no crater of impact, no Detective, no soul. Instead, he listens to the deafening silence of all that is dead and barren around him.

_"Lucifer."_

He hears it, and he whips his head towards the sound of the voice. Chloe stands, younger than he remembers, before him, staring through him, brown hair flowing long into honey tones down her spine, her hair reaching her thighs.

She walks towards him, and his heart bursts in his chest, his sorrow over her arrival here of all places, conflicted by the succour of seeing her after so many years. Until, she walks through him. He feels nothing, no presence of her energy, her own goodness and light.

"Chloe," He murmurs.  
  
 _"As long as it takes. You... m—"_

He turns to see her stumble backwards, clutching her chest before he tries to catch her, only to have her collapse through him, vanishing before her body impacts the ground.

Lucifer blinks, and he's sitting on his throne, not standing in the middle of the field of sorrow.

Scoffing, he twirls his ring, considering pinching himself over the vivid fantasy he seems to have just experienced.

Sighing, he resigns himself to visit a soul he has not seen in quite some time. If he cannot see Linda, then at least he can torture her ex-husband.

On some occasions, Reese seems to retain insights of the good doctor’s that have some merit.

~^^x^^~

Reese Getty is a superficial sleeper following what felt like an eternity of being on call for the next big scoop. Nevertheless, he can also acknowledge he's not used to contemplative devils waking him at what he is sure to be, the wee hours of the morning. Reese perceives Lucifer's proximity, like a weight against his chest even though the Devil is not touching him in any way. The reporter cracks open one eyelid, finding his jailor sitting there alongside his mattress, looking off into the distance, the red soles of his shoes essentially gleaming upon his end table.

"That's the matter with humans, Reesie," Lucifer declares, "How much sleep is required. Seems like a design flaw of dear old Dad's, wouldn't you agree? Give you these fragile little mortal bodies which require a third of their time be spent resting."

"I would disagree, Lucifer, to sleep— to sleep, perchance to dream."

"You're quoting Billy to the Devil, sir, and arguably his most famous play, but I may be biased since I gave notes. Regardless, I feel as though you're missing the most important parts of the quote. _There's the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come_ …"

Reese rolls his eyes, "My point was dreams are where anyone can be creative, sometimes they assist the mind in solving complex problems." 

The mortal rubs his eyes and works to prop himself up on his elbows.

"What are you doing here, anyway? I told you to leave Linda and me alone after hours."

"That's what you think," Lucifer proceeds to disregard Reese's last statement. "But I once knew a fellow who had not one iota of creative nature in his entire soul. When he dreamed, he dreamed of his workplace. It was a tragedy, really, hard to imagine what he could possibly feel guilty of, considering how boring he was."

"Linda is away on a work retreat and won't be back till Monday."

"Even when you finally get over your initial guilt and plow forward, you still imagine her cheating on you."

"What?" Reese asks as he strokes his head and sits up against the headboard. He knows he doesn't want to explore Lucifer's comments too deeply. "We were talking about dreams. Are you dreaming again—"

"Come to think of it, there's like an entire faction of souls where their loops are career-based. There are some souls that all they dream of doing is work. Work a job, work to survive, even their subconscious side thinks of these dreary jobs. Some hell-loops, that's all there is: Four fake walls and the smell of body odour. At least you have an entire two-year loop, which has quite the range. It's why I enjoy our little visits." Lucifer winks at him, lifting his feet from the bedside table and rising to pace Getty's bedroom.

Reese waits because, ultimately, he hopes Lucifer will get to the point. 

"I don't know what's worse, those poor buggars whose brief mortal lifespan revolves around the mundane so much that they dream of is vending machine malfunctions in their favour and office romances or the poor sods who fantasize about incredible and wonderful places, Lehore, Jakarta, Dubai, Tokyo... only to have their dreams be the only opportunity they get to experience living. That was my least favourite part about my rebellious little excursions topside, rest assured. When humans were so utterly boring, they felt compelled to let everyone know about their midnight ramblings, just to prove they weren't mundane, pitiful wretches. Of course, I'd consider drawing out their desires, but really Reese, what could they possibly aspire to? The day I say the words 'I had the strangest dream, let me tell you about it,' is the day—"

"LUCIFER!" Reese snaps loudly, and Lucifer stops his pacing to face the half-naked soul lying in bed in front of him.

"For the last time, before I call the police, why are you in my bedroom at what, four a.m.?" he questions bluntly. Reese is too tired this morning for this.

"Actually, in Hell—"

"Lucifer, if I'm going to indulge you, could you please... just..."

Lucifer puffs a heavy sigh before he commences. "I had the strangest dream. Let me tell you all about it."

Reese sighs and lifts himself to a sitting position. He opens his bedside table drawer, pulling out an ashtray and a pack of cigarettes and offers them to Lucifer before crossing his legs and fixing his pillows.

The Devil before him laments at the gesture, handing the pack to Reese, who pulls one out and a lighter from the drawer.

This time, Reese lights first before he hands the lighter over to his bedroom visitor.

"I don't remember you being a smoker." Lucifer tilts his head as he watches Reese inhale and hand the lighter over to him.

"I wasn't. But I figured it wasn't going to hurt me at this point." Reese exhales and watches as Lucifer lights his own and sits in the chair beside him.

"Do you remember the Detective?" Lucifer asks, crossing his long limbs once more, before putting the cigarette up to his mouth and drawing a long inhale inwards.

Reese grins a watery smile, staring off into the distance at his true memories of the Detective.

_"Lucifer, could you please... not... juggle Evidence."_

"Yes, I remember your partner, Detective Decker, her first name is Chloe, right?"

"Yes, Chloe." Lucifer nods, and he uncrosses his legs and shifts in the chair, leaning over and ashing into the ashtray before crossing his legs and leaning back once more.

"Well, about fifty years ago, maybe a bit more. I sent a demon to go warn the Detective about something. Just a small detail involving a case she was working on."

"Fifty years ago..." Reese narrows his eyes at his companion.

"Mmm, about a day ago, upon the mortal plane. Well, time is always in flux down here, therefore an approximation at best."

"Continue." Reese retorts. He tries to balance his lies to himself that this reality is true and real against the fact that Satan visits him from time to time to check on his progress in his hell-loop.

"Well, it's ludicrous really, but before that, in those first millennia back, I had this dream of seeing her in another person's hell-loop. Only..."

"Only?"

"Only it was several years in her future, and she was looking more youthful than before I met her. Only, not? Reese her eyes gleamed amber and white, with a radiance I haven't beheld since I was exiled. Pure divinity. It appeared to be a fanciful notion my mind created, leading me to do the only rational thing in the situation. I tucked it away and never visited that hell-loop again." Lucifer leans forth to ash his smoke once more.

"Wait, what?"

"Consequently, I go about leaving it alone for another millennium or so. It truly does get bothersome trying to keep track without popping off and checking in. So, I go about business as usual. Until the sex dream, and you'd think Lucifer, it's the Detective, of course, you'd likely succumb to fantasies of her p—"

"Don't need to know this part," Reese interjects. Lucifer halts his motion towards the nightstand. He looks at Reese before butting out the remnants of his cigarette.

"Yes, well, you said that the last time we got to this point, so colour me surprised."

"Wait, WHAT?"

"But this time, Reese. THIS TIME—"

Lucifer runs his hands through his unkempt hair. Reese recognizes this is the least presentable he has ever seen the being who doubles as his warden and confidant.

"This time, there was no dreamscape. No hell-loop to blame the treacherous visions on. I saw Chloe with my own eyes. She arrived like a meteorite falling to the ashen ground of the Fields of Despair, near the Lake of Sorrow. I bore witness to what appeared to be her untimely death before she dissolved into the ether. "

Lucifer rises from the seat once more, one hand in his pocket, the other raking over the scruff of his permanent five o'clock shadow. He meanders over to the window, peering out the blinds as a faux sunrise begins to peek over the horizon.

"I don't understand it— because it doesn't make any sense! Chloe is not here in Hell. I would know if she were to arrive, I would be able to sense her loop. I am always aware of loops where I exist. After all, I did send Balroq away so I could personally play the part of myself, in your sweet dark, twisted little fantasy." Lucifer winks slyly at Reese before perching in the seat beside his bed.

"But she felt so real, which is some strange kind of torture. But why would Father create her only to have her come here? Because if Father thinks I plan to live in some kind of external hell-loop which Chloe stars in while I dream, then this is one of his worst thought out plans."

"You know, for the Devil, you seem to worry about your Father a lot." Reese yawns.

"Reese, what improvement! Are you finally affirming you are trapped here with me in a Hell of your own making?"

"Sure, because the Devil is a patient of my wife's and a close friend of mine."

"Reeses Pieces, please, don't flatter yourself."

An air of silence hangs between them, as neither willing to budge on from their positions on the circumstances.

"What do you mean?" Lucifer subsequently inquires.

Arguing with Lucifer ordinarily resets the part of the loop that Reese finds the most familiar. When he's hopeless and borderline manic. But Reese had gotten so far, farther than ere before. The last time Lucifer was here, they both had agreed he was now manifesting situations (that had nothing to do with his memories) into the plot of his endless torture. Reese narrows his eyes at his warden, resisting the urge to let the comment worm its way into his heart.

"I remember your work with someone named Lee. We discussed it the last time you visited. Which wasn't that long ago, was it?" Reese offers, and Lucifer's face breaks into an infectious smile.

"Well, Bravo, my fine fellow, Lee, may have broken much faster. You seem to be retaining more between visits."

Reese nods and scratches his head before lamenting, an itch developing behind his eyes deep within his skull. Acknowledgement is always the first step, but if he pushes too hard, it means Linda doesn't return. He's not ready to let her go just yet, so he redirects the conversations again.

"So, what are you going to do about Chloe. Since you think a) We're trapped in Hell and b) Even though I saw her just two days ago, you seem to think she's not here. Does she have to be from your universe?" Reese asks him.

"What I mean is, you introduced me to your friend Constantine the other day, and you told me he was passing through from a different universe. That this wasn't his Hell."

"Bloody here, Reese, you remember that? Do you realize you've had a breakthrough if you remember up to our last conversation?"

The itch flares, his name on Linda's lips rings through his ears. Reese ignores Lucifer and continues his thought. "So, if there is more than one alternate universe out there. Does that mean there is a reaction for every action, for every option of a decision, there is an alternate universe? There must be, like thousands of universes just for Chloe alone, all that work she does as a Detective, interacting with people and solving crimes. Touching people's lives. I can only imagine how many universes there are out there for you."

"Look at you, using those journalistic skills once more! Deducting and trying to get down to brass tax. Really, it's quite adorable watching your little pea brain try to figure it out, but unfortunately, my dullard friend, it merely boils down to what my Father wills to be an alteration on the timeline worthy of sustaining an entire universe over. I mean, I suppose there is a slim chance that she's a Chloe from a multi-verse. I do remember about half a millennia ago Constantine passing through, and if that's possible, I suppose it is feasible that a different Chloe could be echoing through this hellscape."

"You seem to know a lot about how inter-dimensional travel works for someone who claims he doesn't understand what could possibly be going on."

"Yes, well, it's not exactly like riding a bicycle. More like a unicycle, over a pit of flaming spikes. On a flat tire. Hard to see yourself up there." Lucifer's eyes flash red of their own accord before he rubs them, seemingly exhausted.

Reese is lucid enough currently to recognize that he's genuinely in Hell, and red eyes are nothing to what he could be witnessing. 

"I'm confused."

"That's not surprising given your lack of ability to cope at the best of times. Chloe may be trying to summon me from our own universe, Or—" he says, getting up from the chair once more and stands above him. Soon he will leave him to go ponder somewhere else alone, "A Chloe with unspeakable powers is ripping holes through the fabric of space and time to summon me. Which would be the icing on the proverbial cake. To think Father is responsible for his own bloody downfall is enough to keep me feeling absolutely bliss out for the next century."

"That doesn't sound like Chloe at all," Reese states, and he turns to look at Lucifer with curious eyes. "From what I've witnessed of Detective Decker, I can't see her consciously endangering several universes to try and find a backdoor into this one, regardless of her feelings for you."

"Did I ever say consciously?" Lucifer asks, wiggling his eyebrows before sealing the door behind him. 

As he begins to walk the corridor beyond Reese's quarters, Lucifer looks up to see his brother, a solemn look plastered over his dark features.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Lucifer asks all thoughts of multi-verses and tears in the space-time continuum exiting his mind until a cold fear floods his being, thinking of the only reason his brother would bother to visit and demand his return.

Chloe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, texting is apart of this story and I was a sociopath and created messenger images of the conversations. The SMS begin appearing in two chapters, (6. Part One - Existential Passive Aggressive Babble Hole). Would people rather read them in a normal format, or do you think that as long as it's formatted well they would add to your enjoyment level? Let me know what you think in the comments!


	5. Prologue: Okay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaCIL52lJ6xBI0Us4Hd-TzhV
> 
> FULL SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaD9thdXvGwpstPh7S0HLHdN
> 
> Fic Blog and Art: mizukiri.tumblr.com

_On the wind, I can hear you  
Call my name, held the sound  
  
_

In the past, when Lucifer traversed through trans-dimensional planes, he usually arrived somewhere along the coastlines.

This time right before he shifts, he reminisces about Chloe.

Lucifer thinks of the Detective’s eyes framed by fluttering lashes.  
Her sharp-edged cheekbones.  
The beauty mark betwixt the two.  
Her last words.  
  
 _I love you. Please don’t leave._

When he grounds, he opens his eyes to see the precinct parkade surrounds him. Lucifer walks past her stall and observes the Mustang he gifted her millennia ago, his heart leaping at the realization that the car means she will be here or be back to pick it up.

As he enters the through stairwell doors, Lucifer closes his eyes and revels as ripples of euphoria roll over him. He inhales deeply while sauntering down the stairs, exhaling halfway down with a satisfied sigh.  
  
"Burnt coffee and body odour never smelled so good."

He examines the room, a sea of familiar faces. His gaze descends on Chloe's desk, her body hunched over as she signs paperwork for Detective Amanda Enson. Lucifer’s eyes soften as his joy soars. Hope fills him that he hasn't forgotten a single detail about her. There she is.

She's safe.  
No cause for her ghost to haunt him in Hell.  
He can't help but hum softly.

She is just concluding with her co-worker when he comes gallivanting towards her, his partner. Lucifer feels himself reminiscing on all the things they have been to each other, what they were, once.

"Hello, Detective." He greets tenderly, her eyes engaging his with cold indifference as she rises from her position.

"No. No," Chloe aims at him with her pen, "Get the hell out of here."

The Detective points up the stairs and away from them. Lucifer is not startled by this response, but he can't help but smile. Regardless of Chloe's anger, he is so elated to be near, to hear her voice again. To see her radiant as she flows in her element.

"Detective, I can explain—"

"—No, I don't want to hear it." She crosses his arms at him, placing her walls up the way she does when she is about to go into an interrogation. "If you didn't understand the first four times, I shot you, I will gladly shoot you again, Michael."

Lucifer's grin fades. _Why would the Detective have to shoot my halfwit of a twin?_

"It's **_me_** ," He tries once more. "It's Lucifer."

She looks at him with those intense blue eyes, cocking her head to the side with a small smirk on her face. He feels his face pulling into a smile again. He simply cannot help himself.

He's here. She's here.

"Do you expect me to fall for that again?"

"But..." Lucifer begins irritably, a meagre yet needling doubt working into the Devil's soul. Chloe shakes her head, honey-blonde tresses creating waves as she narrows her eyes at him. Surely, Michael had not been that proficient at convincing everyone that he was, well _him_.  
  
"Look at the hair..." He preens in front of her before seizing at the lapel of his jacket and leaning in. "Or the perfectly arranged pocket square. Could Michael pull this off? I don't think so."

He chuckles. The Detective's humouring face is gone, and Lucifer can see the stronghold she keeps herself hidden behind begin to crumble.

"I..." Chloe starts, and he realizes she needs more evidence than that. He sees Emily Cacuzza, a uniformed officer approaching them from behind the Detective.

"Cacuzza, come here. Come here. Oh, it's good to see you again." He takes the uni's hands in his own, and he looks over one last time to his Detective before focusing his energy on Emily.

"Hi." Cacuzza's eyes light up like she sees Santa standing in front of her instead of Satan himself.

"Tell me. What is it you desire?" Lucifer inquires, barely having to exude his mojo energy to get the desired results.

"I... I want to figure out how to disable the cameras in Evidence so I can nap in there." Cacuzza confesses.

"Oh! Naughty you! Thank you," And he means it. Anything to prove to the radiant being in front of him that he is who he says he is.  
  
Emily beams at him, but his focus leaves her the minute his mojo gets him his desired result. Lucifer gazes at Chloe, clearly avoiding his stare before her eyes snap upward and lock on his.

"Now, I know my brother can't do that." He points at Cacuzza, who looks over to Chloe before she begins to walk away.

Chloe exhales, quivering. "It's really you."

She scoffs and shakes her head at him, and his hands begin to twitch with the urge to touch her.

"How?" she implores, her eyes filling with tears.

"It's a funny story, actually. So, there I was in Hell, and—"

Lucifer feels her before he realizes what is happening to them, and her arms are wrapped around him, pulling him down into her, into a loving and desperate embrace, holding him tightly as only she could. She tucks her chin over his shoulder, and he feels his arms finding themselves automatically wrapping around her back. He lets out the breath he has been holding since the moment Amenadiel arrived in Hell.

Amenadiel.  
  
He'll have to tell her; tell her he isn't here for long. But for now, he smiles again as Chloe gently sways in his arms. A blend of coconut, cinnamon and vanilla fill his senses, and the press of her body against him sends ripples of relief through his body. He leans into her.

So far, Chloe is okay. He just has to ensure it remains that way.

~^^x^^~

"Hey! You're still here." Chloe approaches him from the edge of her crime scene.

"Yes." Lucifer affirms, "And I'm not going anywhere until I know you're okay." So far, Lucifer has not had much opportunity to talk to her about what Michael's plans were or what had happened to her while he was away. After her reaction to the gift-news at the precinct, Lucifer hasn't been able to abate the feeling like he's missing _something_.

She's wearing her sunglasses, so trying to gauge her reactions will be that much more difficult, he's sure.

"Oh. Well...Well, I mean, I'm— I'm _happy_ to hear that…"

Lucifer notes she does **not** appear happy to hear that.

"But I'm sorry. I mean," Chloe veers away from him and peers over towards Ella and the dead body she's investigating. "If God made me for you, He probably would want me to feel that way."

He feels the tension thread through him as he exhales and places his hands in his pockets. He knows from his time with Dr. Linda that when humans feel overwhelmed, they need time to process their complicated feelings after tempering their emotions.

"So, I just... I need a little time to absorb all of it."

 _And there it is._ Lucifer thinks to himself, _and it's even more important NOT to tell her you already knew that._

"Right." And he begins talking with his hands, trying not to ball them into fists of frustration.

"Well, in the meantime, why don't we absorb whilst we work?" Lucifer tells her instead. "I may as well help solve this murder for you whilst I'm up here fixing things."

"Uh, I don't think this is an easy fix. This isn't one of those cases where you just waltz in and figure it out as you go." Chloe strives to tell him, but he's already paying attention to Ms. Lopez and a man's lifeless body in the distance.

"Oh. Hello! I know that man." Lucifer crows.

"Really?" She asks him incredulously.

"Yes, that's Matt Owens."

And just like there's room once more for him to be her crime-solving devil.

~^^x^^~

"So, you left Amenadiel… in Hell?" Linda interrogates, reframing the information to Lucifer so he may verify she comprehends this celestial fracas. For the first time in three thousand years, Lucifer is home to visit Linda, to discuss some of his breakthroughs without her assistance and get her advice on his current plight with the Detective.

"Really, Doctor?" He scoffs, pressing his palms together as he leans forward on the sofa, "An evil twin, the Detective finding out she's a gift from God, and that's the part you're stuck on?"

"Amenadiel."

Lucifer tilts his head at her, waiting for her point.

 _"The father of my child."_ Linda scathes her frustration apparent, and he prides himself on noticing her discomfort.

"Oh," Lucifer has the decency to look mildly ashamed. "Yes."

His smile is watery, a low chuckle escaping his lips. "Well, not to worry, Doctor, I'll uh… I'll put what Michael did right and get Amenadiel back before Charlie even notices he's gone, okay?"

Linda looks away from him, shrugging, and he watches as she battles her professionalism with her urge to tear a strip off him. He wonders if after all these years— well months, for them, if Amenadiel and Linda have put right what happened between them. But even after all this time, Linda seems distant to him, more than before. As though he's hurt her in some way.

But he hasn't done anything to her _currently_.

He takes note of her behaviour as she shakes her head and lifts her hand towards him, "But what about Michael? Do you even know where he is?"

"Well," Lucifer sighs, leaning back against the couch and crossing his leg over himself. "If past is prologue, he's probably hidden himself off somewhere to laugh about the mess he's made…"

Michael; his snivelling, slop-shouldered, slimeball of a twin. He tries to remember a time when they weren't constantly annoying each other, where Michael wasn't perpetually trying to prove himself the _better_ of the two of them. Even after everything that happened between them, his fall from grace, the fact that Lucifer had not spoken to their Father in eons, the fact that his awful and conniving doppelganger decided to pop onto the earthly plane is troubling, at best knowing what many prophecies have proclaimed about his brother's presence.

" …Which is actually why I'm here."

Lucifer looks to Linda, her pursed lips, her reserved professionalism, an inscrutable look carved into her features.

"Michael didn't coax any awful, soul-poisoning fears out of you, did he?"

"Me? No. No." Linda responds quickly, almost _too_ quickly. "No, not… Not out of me."

She shakes her head and declines to meet Lucifer’s eyes, and even if she was not so obvious, he would be able to detect the lie rolling off her tongue.

"No." She says as though she is trying to convince herself more than him, and he nods at her, concern for her wellbeing washing over him.

"Good." He tells her, reminding himself he will have to make sure Michael receives punishment for whatever he's done to make his friend and doctor behave as out of sorts as she's currently being.

"Good, well…" And he slaps his knee, beaming at her, unable to help the fact he's just so joyful to be earthside.

"That's a relief, 'cause I worry that this 'not having any free will and being a puppet of fate' thing may have knocked the Detective off her stride."

He watches the doctor guffaw at him. "May have? Lucifer, when you come back unexpectedly and casually drop celestial bombs on the people in your life, you have to expect some shock… some anger, some _frustration_."

 _I know._ He thinks.

He knows these things. This is what he's been trying to avoid for the two years he's been aware of Chloe's celestial interference. He's also cognizant that Linda is right. In almost every situation, he could have broken these universal truths to Chloe himself, in better ways than all the others around him have.

"In my defence," He sits up, and again he finds himself raising his hands in surrender. What is with all the women in his life topside, causing him to feel defensive since he's returned?  
  
"This particular bomb was planted by my Father and set off by my brother, so—"

"Okay, well, instead of deflecting responsibility, try empathizing. Try really listening to what your friends are saying."

He tries to reframe what Linda is telling him, so he understands. He thought he had been listening; Listening when Amenadiel said that Michael was trying to hurt his friends, their family. Listening to Linda complain about Amenadiel covering for him in Hell while he's topside.

_Am I missing something?_

"What, so if I give people the opportunity, they'll tell me what to do?" Lucifer asks Linda.

 _I mean, when do you choose not to listen?_ He asks himself. Earlier, Chloe had told him to go back to Hell.

_If I did as Linda said, as Chloe said, wouldn't I be back by now?_

"Exactly, like…"

_And what about Michael? Why is he here? Could listening to Chloe end up fixing this problem? What of Ms. Lopez? The Urchin? Detective Douche?_

"Yes, yes, thank you." He dismissively retorts to Linda as he stands, "I've got to go."

"To Hell?" Linda inquires, her voice firm over the noise of him opening the door to her office.

"No, to find out what other chaos Michael may have caused up here."

As he leaves Linda's office, Lucifer can't stop pondering about what his cheap, lying, meritless, hopeless, pathetic, stiff-shouldered, ignoramus of a brother may have done to bring such dissonance into his circle.

Or what it may have to do with his nightmares of Chloe in Hell.

~^^x^^~

The Detective has sent him away **again** , and Lucifer is starting to apprehend this little foray into the daylight might end up lasting longer than he originally intended. Amenadiel advised him to take his time and make sure to gather as much evidence as possible about Michael before retreating to Hell to plan their next course of action, but currently, he is feeling a sense of guilt about leaving his older brother. The plan never was to save the universe so that Charlie could grow up fatherless. 

_"The whole of all the universes couldn't stop me from finding you."  
"Lucifer, I won't abandon you. I won't let you abandon me."  
"As long as it takes. You, me, us."_

The haunting words of ethereal Chloe fill Lucifer's thoughts, and he knows he can't leave yet. Instead, he stands above his decimated piano, a glass of Macallan in his hand. 

"Oh Michael, of all the things you've done to hurt me, this may cut the deepest." 

He hears the sound of blades scraping together and turns to his right. Standing there with a small smirk adorning her face is his favourite demon. 

"Maze." Lucifer smiles, pleased that she found out he was here already.

Good.  
  
He can only assume the Detective informed her at this point since his entire trip has concentrated on her. Sure, Michael taking over his life is moderately annoying, but the idea of him trying to manipulate Chloe or any of the people he left for, well… 

"Oh! I missed you while I was gone." He chuckles before shifting, "You know, there were a few tough nuts down there, and there were times I could've really used your—" 

Lucifer sensed when speaking to her the atmosphere change, atoms crackling as he dodges her weaponry. 

"—blades!" 

Maze roars forth, a guttural cry of frustration as Lucifer places his glass down and grants her his full attention. The demon goes in for a punch to his abdomen, and he blocks her, pushing Mazikeen backwards. She grunts in pain. 

Chloe had to deal with his supposedly 'very convincing' lying worm of a twin. In that case, he can only imagine what Michael's intentions were with his Mazikeen. Lucifer realizes it might take a bit of convincing. 

He fixes his jacket before holding his hands up in a gesture of capitulation. "Mazikeen, please, let me explain." 

Maze advances towards him anew, howling ferociously. 

"Mazikeen!" Lucifer cries. 

Maze jumps, yelling a battle cry towards him, blades first. 

"Hey!" Lucifer pleads, and she drives downward. He hinders her again, and Mazikeen of the Lilim snarls at him, hair whipping around her face in rage. She swipes from the right this time, and Lucifer throws his forearm up once more to impede her strike —another swing from her left, a jab with her blade nearly slicing his face. Lucifer ducks under her arm and shuffles a bit backwards, aware he has no more room to move from her as she goes to kick him. 

He crosses his forearms below his waist to impede her strike and trips up the stairs to his bedroom. 

As soon as he practically topples over, his temper flares.

Lucifer knew returning to Earth would be an exercise in patience after millennia of expecting everyone to do his bidding or perish under his will, but this is his Mazie. And as insolent as she is, he doesn't want her to suffer. 

Maze advances on him, her face full of unadulterated hatred as she tries to kick him further. Lucifer grabs her leg and holds it against his thigh, unwilling to let her have the limb back incase she recovers her balance. He would rather like **not** to ruin his face today, and while he was used to having Maze by his side in Hell to deal with her brethren, he's been fighting for quite some time without her aid. 

Lucifer’s scarcely exerting energy at this point but would rather keep that fact to himself. 

Maze's left-hand goes to strike him in a back-handed stroke. He catches it effortlessly, glaring down at Maze before he lifts her in his arms and slams her down onto the bed. 

"Listen to me, Mazikeen! I'm not Michael! It's me!" And he smiles down at her, "Lucifer." 

A light sheen of sweat covers Maze's face, her hair plastered to the side of it as she stares up at him above her, panting. She searches his eyes from below him, huffing her hair out of her features.

"Oh," Maze concedes and moves her hand to snake around his neck and rake her fingers through his hair. Lucifer eases up on her wrists. 

THUD.  
  
Searing pain shoots through his skull as he falls backwards off her and onto his feet. He isn’t entirely sure, as he blinks back unshed tears, but he thinks she just headbutted him. He tastes the iron of his blood in the back of his throat, warm and thick against his nostrils, caked into his stubble. He grunts in pain, holding his hands to his nose before checking behind him so he doesn't fall back down the stairs and onto the broken piano behind them. 

"Wait," Lucifer proclaims, shaking his head.

"Wait, wait." He blinks a few times and trying to straighten his nose. 

Maze jumps up from the bed, and the Devil holds his hand up, finger out to her as a plea to give him a moment to process through the haze of her attack, "Would you rather that I was Michael?!" 

"Either," The demon acknowledges, shrugging at him, stepping into a fighting stance. "He left me in the closet, but you... You went to Hell without me." 

Lucifer deliberates on Maze's words, looking down at her obvious frustration and accusations of betrayal. _  
  
Typical Maze, never changing, always ready to deal with her problems with baseline fisticuffs and little provocation. _

"You left me!" She swipes her blades at him, and Lucifer bends backwards, a repeat of his previous defence. 

He is genuinely surprised by her reaction. After everything they went through, does she not understand? Lucifer thought it was obvious to everyone that he left so that they could all go on living without him, the poison that affected their lives. Lucifer left Maze there to live her life, to love freely and without restraint. He had expected her to patch things up with Eve or enjoy tracking down bounties. To be Aunty Maze to Charlie, to assist Amenadiel in protecting their family. 

Chloe, Linda and the children. 

_Better to die happy beside someone she cares about than to waste the rest of her life, with someone she can barely stand, in Hell._

"No, I didn't, Mazikeen." Lucifer tries because if that is **not** what she wanted, to be free to do whatever she wanted topside, then there had been ways to solve her dilemma. 

"You're not my servant anymore. By all means, you're welcome to join me." 

_After all, I'm not meant to stay._

"I don't. Have. Wings, YOU IDIOT!" 

"Well, Amenadiel does." Lucifer shakes his head at the demon, frustrated with her inability to problem-solve her own crisis.   
  
_Why hasn't Maze spoke to Linda about these feelings she's obviously harbouring?_

"Why didn't you just ask him to fly you down there?" He scoffs at her pressing, his hand to his healing nose as he looks at the demon warily. He sees that she is already contemplating the solutions he just shared with her and knows that cognitive processing isn't one of Mazikeen's strongest abilities. 

Lucifer guards himself, considering how odd she seems to be, as she explores his eyes for what he is unsure. 

The demon shoves him out of the way, and Lucifer grunts as her shoulder connects with his chest. She moves past him towards the exit of the Penthouse. What had been with his reunions today? First, Amenadiel's concern over Michael's intentions on Earth and threatening baby Charlie, then Chloe's vehemence to the discovery of his Father's interference in her life. How Michael had so crassly labelled her 'a gift.' 

Now his Mazikeen was angry with him for… something. Everything? Lucifer is still perplexed. Everything he has ever done for everyone on this mortal plane has been for their own good, so really, it is hard to empathize with Maze’s obvious disgust. 

"Look, I'm really trying to listen," Lucifer starts, leaning into a familiar pattern of communication with one of his oldest companions, "So if you're telling me that you'd like to stab me, then..." 

_Humour. Maze and I used to communicate through sex and humour._

"Just avoid the old parsnip, for old time's sake." 

She doesn't even have the decency to roll her eyes at him as she marches away. 

"Well, you know, my twin is still likely skulking around." He calls out in jest, slapping his thighs, helplessly, "It'd be a big help if you'd like to stab him!" 

"Stab him yourself." 

Lucifer absolutely _could_ do that, recognizing that she left one of the blades behind in her wake. But for all his rage and fury, he understands he would rather prevent the situation from reoccurring permanently before skulking back home to Hell to finish out his duties.

He grabs his drink again, scoffing at the rude awakening he has had since returning to his previous life. The irony that he found a television show based on his relationship with Chloe was a delight to discover, whereas the idea of his brother imitating him sends him reeling. 

All that matters is stopping whatever is happening. All that matters is that the select few he gives a damn about are safe. 

That Chloe is okay. 

~^^x^^~

Lucifer is not okay. 

"Lucifer?" The Detective beckons him from outside in the hallway. Lem Klumpsky is standing before him, a smug look on his face for rendering Lucifer helpless. 

The killer crouches down and places his finger to his lips. 

"Shhhhh," Lem susurrates to Lucifer before moving through the kitchen and arming himself with a long knife. Klumpsky moves out of Lucifer’s field of vision as Lucifer battles the anxiety that rises within himself at his current position. 

He sees Chloe's lithe silhouette as she enters the small apartment, her firearm drawn as she follows safety procedure. She hunches down lower to hide herself.

 _Not like this._ Lucifer feels himself pleading, clawing, fighting against the effects of the drug in his system. _Father, I beg of you. Not now. I’ve only been back a month. It’s only been three days for us._

_Not like this._

Lucifer prays Chloe will fail to see his useless form, still and collapsed on the kitchen floor. That perhaps instead, she will see the troubled killer first, effectively disarming him. But Lem is as tall as Lucifer is and has a toxin on hand that renders even the Devil useless, and Lucifer realizes the odds are not in Chloe's favour. 

He sees his partner's dark form stop, "Lucifer! Oh, my God." 

_Stay away._ Lucifer attempts to project to her, confined in his body, just another cage for him to conquer. 

_Leave me. Protect yourself._

Chloe abandons her defence and hustles towards him almost instantly. "What happened?" 

Lucifer feels the Detective place her delicate hand against his thigh, her bright blue eyes searching his for confirmation that he's uninjured, that he can fight beside her. 

That he isn't a burden. 

Time feels like a construct more than ever as Chloe searches his gaze, the reflection of himself, slack-jawed and invalid, visible in the pupils of her eyes. 

"Are you okay?" The Detective whispers to him, and Lucifer watches paralyzed as Klumpsky rounds the corner behind his partner. 

"Lucifer, what?" Is Chloe's begging plea. He watches, horrified, his body limp as her eyes begin to fill with unshed tears. 

With every ounce of strength he contains, Lucifer continues to fight the paralysis, he senses his eyes get wider, and he moves their focus to behind Chloe before peering back at her. Desperate gawking is all he can do. 

"What?" Chloe asks one last time before she launches her body backwards against the cupboard, propelling herself away from the killer as he tries to land his first blow. 

~^^x^^~

Less than twenty-four hours later and they are at the precinct. He still has no idea how Chloe has the power to mojo _him_ and not the other way around. But if anything good has come from that dilberry otherwise known as her ex, it was the newfound knowledge that he was nay invincible once more. Something which after yesterday’s close call he’s not going to read too much into.

He can keep her safe now.  
  
"I've been thinking about the Whisper Killer case," Chloe informs him, and he looks into her pleading eyes, struck by her obvious redirection.

 _Why does she care so much about Detective Douche when I’m the one who got shot?_  
  
Lucifer is glad that his physical vulnerability around the Detective had dematerialized, but his focus, once again, is on her. After all, he is simply relieved she had not done anything stupid, like try to protect him. Otherwise, the Urchin may have become orphaned. 

She shakes her head, "Something isn't adding up." 

He looks at her, realizing her genuine concern over the situation. "But Klumpsky confessed to everything." 

_She obviously can't turn her brain off._ Lucifer reasons, _That's what this is about, that, and she clearly doesn't want to face these newfound changes in my physiology._

"Yes," She retorts, closing her eyes like she is physically pained, "But something is off. Serial killers often go for someone they know and then branch out to strangers. Klumpsky had no connection to the first three victims, only the fourth. So, it doesn't make sense." 

"Well, if only there was someone we could talk to," Lucifer pronounces, a coy smile on his face at his plausible solution. 

~^^x^^~

Lucifer is listening. He truly is, but all he can hear is that the Detective is already beating a dead horse. Furthermore, after they interrogated Klumpsky again, Chloe's even less sure that Lem was not the only Whisper Killer prowling. 

"Agreed. He was completely useless in my brainstorming session." Lucifer retorts partly in jest, feigning interest in his scribbles. 

This whole time he has been topside, he has been doing _everything_ in his power to shield her from whatever could perhaps be coming her way. And yet now, now that Amenadiel heard his Father's Word that Hell was no longer in need of ruling, he is doing his best to try and enjoy their partnership and the time he has seemingly been gifted to be by Chloe's side. 

The problem has been the constant waiting for the other shoe to drop, knowing that the devious worm he shares a face with thinks he's some kind of mastermind who is seeking to ruin everything. 

_Everything._

Lucifer still struggles to get over what he saw in Hell. 

_"The whole of all the universes couldn't stop me from finding you."_

"Well, what I mean is I don't think he killed the first three victims." Chloe interrupts.

"So?" He asks Chloe. The Detective is getting caught up in the details, and he is concerned with her fixation on putting herself in more danger. He just watched her almost harmed by that smoothed-brained sociopath. 

_What if she hadn't thrust herself backwards? What if the killer had harmed the Detective because she was focused on me?_

"He clearly killed that schoolteacher Madison, and he took a swing at you." Lucifer is behind her right now, watching her honey blonde hair cascading down her back, her head bent to her desk, pick up files. 

These are the conditions she was in when Lem had approached her from behind. 

She turns her back to predators. 

"He belongs in prison, then Hell. Who cares about the details?" Lucifer looks back at his notebook. 

Notes on how to torture Dan without maiming him in any way litter the pages in a sloppy script. But Lucifer isn't reading as much as thinking. 

_And when I'm back, I'll wait for Lem Klumpsky's return eagerly. For the moment, I can lay in wait before tearing him to pieces._

However, he doesn't understand when he will be back to Hell because so far, according to Amenadiel, Father doesn't need his immediate return to his prison. He's been given carte blanche, indefinitely. And while he'd love to be elated at the thought of spending the rest of Chloe's short life with her, he'd rather her die of old age instead of a wayward bullet meant for him. 

He overhears her beleaguered sigh, "I care about the details, Lucifer." 

Lucifer attempts to focus on his partner's voice. Instead, his petty internal dialogue concentrates on different bouts of torture for all the people in his life that have recently disappointed him. First Michael, then Dan, now this madman who dare harmed the detective. 

_Maybe I should make a list._

"But since you seem more concerned with getting the perfect revenge on Dan, why don't you just go do that? I'll get to the bottom of this on my own." 

"Fantastic idea, Detective!" Lucifer beams at her backside, "Divide and conquer." 

He taps her on the posterior with his notebook, pleased at the thought of Chloe alone, tucked away for the night at home safe. After Detective Douche's little mishap, Beatrice was off to Penelope's for the weekend so that they could get to the bottom of this serial killer case and keep the little Urchin at a distance from the celestial world that was eroding around them. 

As Lucifer saunters away, he ruminates about how tranquil the first three weeks at home had appeared, and now everything was heaping up all in the last week or so. But as furious as he is with Dan and Maze, Michael and Amenadiel, he tries not to reminisce about how baffled he is with _her_. 

Chloe. 

She now has his mojo and seems unsettled that Daniel's poor reaction to his devil face ended with him _unharmed_. That can't be the truth of it, Lucifer grasps, but since Chloe has made it clear, she needs space when she's processing information, he has been working to follow the wisdom Linda bestowed on him when he first arrived. So maybe this is what they need. Some time apart. Lucifer will head back to the Penthouse, and she will return to her apartment not far from Venice Beach. 

Home.  
  
Safe. 

~^^x^^~

He was too late. 

Nothing was going to be okay ever again. 

As soon as he had landed, instead of utilizing his abilities to persuade the lock to admit him, he used his strength to slam through her apartment door, four walls shuddering with his ferocity.

Lucifer rolls his shoulders to fold his wings away, providing him room to enter. Before he makes it inside her home, the bottomless dread that takes root inside him grips around his heart.  
  


Lucifer knows. Knows through every fibre of his being, she is not here.  
  
Gone.  
  
His eyes analyze the room, papers from her files scattered to the floor, her chair broken and flipped onto its side, her laptop **torn** in half. 

_Just how arduously had Chloe struggled with her injured forearm? It had sounded like she stopped screeching before the call even finished._

A lamp is turned on its side on the floor, casting an eerie din over the troubling scene as the sun continues to crawl through the drapes and blinds. A vase found turned on end, its lid face-up beside it. 

How much time had he squandered before checking his voicemail? Did he have any time at all? Was this to be how he ended up exposing Ghost Chloe? Was this meant to be his return to Hell, his final call to action to convince her she didn't belong there? 

The nightmares had ceased since retreating to Earth, and Lucifer had not thought much of them since she was always present in his fantasies now that he has come home to her. 

After leaping through every conceivable hoop placed in front of them, Amenadiel's return, Michael's slithering back into the shadows. After Chloe had chosen to believe that whatever they had between them, their partnership meant more than the origins of her birth. 

After the Detective had stolen his bloody mojo. After Daniel had shot him in his own home.  
  
 _Bracelet bro's no more._

His greatest nightmare had finally managed to actualize. 

Chloe was missing, feasibly kidnapped by the same maniac who had been killing all those poor women. 

Trembling, he beckons for her, "Detective?" 

Lucifer swallows, the tears tumbling hot and scalding. 

_What am I to do?_ He had to find her before it was too late. He knows the Urchin is with Penelope till after school Monday. Chloe had told him as much in one of their many conversations since the shooting at the Penthouse.

 _See? I listen! Even when I shouldn't._ He shouldn't have let her come home alone. 

He had made a choice, he had chosen revenge on Dan over an evening with her, and it had possibly cost them all dearly. He stumbles back to the door and empties the contents of his stomach. 

Once he's finished, he numbly pulls out his phone and calls Ms. Lopez. 

_Poison._

_Always._

~^^x^^~

He bears Mazikeen and Daniel's assistance, two people he rather detests currently. Lucifer has found himself persuaded by the two to drive to Zoo, something even he can agree was an unexpected concession.

But after Daniel puts away his fears to help the Devil, and mentions that depending on the situation, they may need to call for back-up or an ambulance; After Maze reminds him that he refuses to lie and that it could affect Chloe's career if they didn't play by the rules, Lucifer growls in disappointment and joins them from the back seat of Daniel's cruiser. 

At least the Douche has the decency to use his emergency lights to get there. 

As soon as they tear into the parking lot, Lucifer realizes he cannot wait for their impossibly slow legs and releases his wings. 

Lucifer closes his eyes and thinks of Chloe.   
He thinks of how Chloe bites her lip unintentionally, a tell of hers when she's thinking.   
He thinks of how Chloe sounds right before she falls asleep in his arms.  
The melodious sound of her laugh. 

When he opens his eyes, he is standing in front of an encasement designed like a cave, a long corridor leading up to one singular cell. The barred gate opens under his touch, and he cannot see the Detective in there, but he feels her close, knows she is nearby and that he should examine the surroundings before giving up. 

There seems to be another grate on the other side of the cave, and he crosses to it before feeling his skull erupt in a burst of agonizing pain before Lucifer grabs the roof of the cave to prevent himself from toppling to the ground. 

"Maze, Dan, what are you doing here?" He hears Chloe's startled and terrified voice inquire. He turns around to see Dan and Maze have finally caught up, and Chloe, still in the clothes he last beheld her in, standing in front of them, an iron rod bar covered in concrete in her hand. 

"That's a pretty mighty swing you've got there, Detective." The Devil tells his Detective; his own voice, raw with emotion. She abandons her weapon to the ground before spinning to him.  
  
"Are all abandoned zoos this dangerous?" 

"Lucifer…" She sighs, and a grin splits out across her exhausted face. Before he realizes what's happening, she's in his arms, pressing her hands to his face, kissing him fervently. 

He stifles a shocked sound before returning the kiss. Not that Lucifer wasn't pleased to partake in her delight, merely astounded that she initiated the embrace in front of Daniel and Mazikeen. 

"I'm so sorry," and she's practically climbing into his arms, her body trembling, "I thought you were Michael." 

"Oh, it's okay," Lucifer softly chuckles, his eyes swelling with tears. "You can wack me anytime." 

And for the first time in a long time, Lucifer believes it. 

_Everything is going to be okay._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus ends the prologue to Kismet.
> 
> If you are a reader of this fic, you may have noticed I update at least twice a week. I hope to continue that pace!
> 
> And as always Kudos and comments are very muchly appreciated.


	6. Part I: Existential Passive-Aggressive Babble Hole

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THIS STORY CONTAINS FLASHBACKS OF TRAUMA AND TRIGGERS ASSOCIATED WITH ASSAULT.
> 
> READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
> 
> Chapter Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaB2EMIcca0GF7NrWC5wl1vS
> 
> FULL SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaD9thdXvGwpstPh7S0HLHdN

_In my heart, in this cold heart  
I can live or I can die  
I believe if I just try  
You believe in you and I.  
  
_

This is not the beginning.  
  
Where does an ocean begin? That was what their connection resembled; A story as deep and beautiful, dark and foreboding as the oceans.

But beginnings and middles are falsehoods if one regards the true nature of time and Her ability to move through it; Skimming the surface like a stone. 

This moment, even the Detective would agree was an anchor. To outsiders, anchors may appear innocuous compared to other brilliant memories. Sometimes, to outsiders, anchors are not what they seem. 

And sometimes... anchors are really just cornerstones.

~^^x^^~ 

Chloe Blinks.

Grimacing, she turns her head left and right, her eyes darting along the shelves of the evidence closet, squinting as she goes. Lucifer may have genuinely vanished into thin air and although she embraces the fact that it's a strong possibility she's bordering on a psychotic break, she can still sense his warmth.

"Lucifer?" She queries. 

_Awesome Chloe, you imply you might use his mojo against him to find out if he loves you, and he mysteriously vanishes._

On some level, she knows it doesn't make sense. Moments before, her partner had been trying to mollify her, to get her out of her own head. Because despite herself, Chloe had remained more vulnerable around Lucifer than she _wanted_ herself to be, considering how hard she worked to earn the respect of her peers and her friends.

Herself.  
  
These tender moments of confidence-boosting had all but vanished once Eve had entered the picture _, Or had it been Pierce? Who are you kidding... you know it was Kinley._

She shudders as she leaves the evidence closet; looking around and assessing the damage around the bullpen. Glass confetti glimmers against the carpet and tile of the floor, files strewn chaotically. As the pieces crunch under her feet, she sees that dividers and doors are broken, with desks in the foreground upended.

A confounded look is etched into every face she passes. Wandering through a crowd of officers, Chloe is stunned to find a distraught Linda looking equally as perplexed, pushing the stroller back and forth as Charlie whimpers inside. 

She looks over and witnesses Lt. MacKay moving from his office to investigate what has occurred down in the bullpen before shifting her attention to back Linda, who has plucked Charlie from the stroller to rock him. 

"Linda, are you both okay?" She questions, evaluating both Charlie and Linda head-to-toe.

 _First things first, make sure to take care of anyone who may need first aid._

"We'll be fine," Linda assures Chloe.  
  
The Detective nods, her eyes burning from exhaustion, "Have you seen Lucifer?" 

"No, not since he left for your talk." Linda shakes her head, looking around the precinct, "Is there somewhere where we can?" 

Chloe nods and looks around, walking around the commotion's edge to check the Interrogation Room A's soundproof observational entrance. She comes back to take the stroller and leads Linda away from the frenetic energy of a bunch of disoriented officers who are currently complaining about how this could have possibly happened. Some are talking about the security tapes and Chloe realizes that if this had to do with Amenadiel as well, the tapes will most likely appear as though a glitch occurred. As she closes the door behind them, Chloe makes a mental inventory of what she does and does not know. 

She knows that Lucifer was about to reveal to her something profound.   
She knows that Dan was there only moments before, so she would need to check for him.   
She knows that Amenadiel is no longer with Linda in the waiting area. 

"What happened?" Linda asks the Detective, with Charlie restless and keening in her arms, bordering on the verge of tears. She continues to rock her baby as she explores Chloe's face for answers. 

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Chloe shrugs before crossing her arms, "Lucifer and I were in the middle of a very intense conversation, and then I blink, and he's..." 

"Gone?" Linda completes her sentence. 

"AWOL," Chloe decides. "He wouldn't leave me like that unless something was going on." 

Linda glances at her with sympathetic eyes, and Chloe fights the urge to defend him. 

"I mean, if Amenadiel disappeared also?" The Detective continues, implying there is more to her reasoning other than some misplaced faith in the Devil. Linda nods, holding her son close as she rocks him against herself. 

"Do you think Amenadiel could have used his... Time slowie thing?" Chloe asks her, and Linda picks up a pacifier from a stroller's pocket and deposits it in Charlie's mouth. 

"Chloe, they’re angels. Anything is possible. Can you grab me his baby acetaminophen for his fever?"

Chloe reaches into the baby bag and finds the over-the-counter medication. She opens it automatically, filling it to the correct dosage, before handing the syringe over to Linda and holding out her hand.  
  
"Why, what are you thinking?" Linda asks as she plucks the soother from Charlie and hands it to Chloe, giving the baby the medication. 

What is Chloe thinking? 

She's assessing.  
Deducing. 

But she's exhausted, she hasn't truly slept in over twenty-four hours, and the last time darkness overtook her, it was because the man who looks like her bestfriend, strangled her unconscious. 

_Focus Chloe._ She tells herself. _What do we know?_

Lucifer and Amenadiel are gone.   
There is shattered glass all over the floor.   
There seems to have been a struggle but not with humans, if none of her colleagues are hurt.   
Then again, where is Dan? 

"I think Lucifer and Amenadiel are M.I.A." Chloe begins and offers Charlie the pacifier now that he has finished swallowing the drops.  
  
"Do you— Do you know what happened to me?" 

"Yes," Linda frowns, "Amenadiel told me after we left pediatrics. He said that Lucifer was hunting down whoever kidnapped you. That's why we came straight here when Amenadiel got his call, well why I conceded to come here because now I think Amenadiel had other—" 

"Call?" Chloe interrupts. 

"Yes, when Lucifer called to tell us you were found and that you were safe, and that they were bringing you back here." 

Chloe shakes her head, her eyebrows knitting together, "I have been in close contact with him since they found me. He hasn't called anyone." 

"Well, that can't be right," Linda half laughs, "I heard him on the other..." 

"Michael." They both say in unison. Chloe inhales through her nose before a tremor-filled exhalation escapes her. 

She thinks of Michael's hands pressed against her mouth.  
His breath against her neck as he snaked his arm around her waist.  
She shakes her head, trying to focus. 

"Okay, so now we know it's celestial related," Chloe sighs before biting her lip.

Linda nods her head in agreement looking discouraged, "You call your angel, I'll call mine?" 

"I think Lucifer told me he has my phone charging for me at my desk."

"Right, I'll call our demon then," Linda offers, and Chloe agrees before realizing, "Maze stayed behind to deal with Michael while Dan and Lucifer brought me back here." 

Linda groans, "Okay, I'll try Maze first."   
  
"I need to go check on Ella and Dan," Chloe tells her when Linda puts Charlie into the stroller once more. "Meet you back here?" 

Linda hums a sound of approval before placing the phone to her ear. Chloe slips out of the room to head towards her desk. There, she grabs her phone before heading towards Forensics when Dan essentially jumps in front of her. 

"Oh, thank God you're okay!" Dan accosts her as he examines her body for injury. His grip on her shoulders is borderline painful. 

"Am I?" Chloe responds it isn't intended to sound facetious, but the throb in her filthy forearm down her hand and behind her eyes is draining her and here is another barrier between her and the sleep she desperately craves in the arms of her partner. "And is God the one we should be thanking?"

"What?" Dan demands with an astonished lilt in his tone, squeezing her shoulders more as he squeaks out the word. 

"Can you stop? You're hurting me." Chloe shrugs out of his grasp. He checks her over with an inscrutable glare before he turns her around and starts pushing her towards the precinct's exit.

"Now that I've got you alone, we need to go." 

"Dan," She laments, but it does nothing to hinder his vigorous shoving; Chloe calls to him again, a bit more tersely, "DAN!" 

He lays off enough that she has the time to whirl around and stare at the frantic man she once called her husband. The expression in his eyes is wild, and Chloe starts to feel apologetic for his unmistakable mania. 

She plants her feet, wrapping her arms around herself in a protective stance, "Lucifer is missing." 

"Good! That gives us time to go get Trixie and get you both **away** from this place, away from him!" 

"Been there, done that, Dan," Her eyes roll on their own accord these days, even when Chloe tries to keep her snark to a minimum. 

"Huh?" 

"Rome?" Chloe infers and gives him a searching look. It's a gaze that begs him to speculate on her own odd behaviour. 

He reflects momentarily, and she sees the stress leave his shoulders as several emotions crossing his profile before settling on indignation. 

"You've known for over a **year**? And you didn't think to tell me? Jesus Chloe, _you left me with him_?!" 

She was expecting this. Flashes of the instant she found out that Linda was aware of her partner's true form roots in her mind's eye. Chloe shakes her head as though the physical action will push the thought away, to focus on the present situation. 

"Would you have believed me?" 

"No!" 

"See?" 

Dan makes a face she grew to intimately know when they were married one she has named _I-Believe-You-Made-A-Valid-Point-But-I-Plan-To-Ignore-It._

"Well, maybe that's the point then." She tells him, only huffing slightly, "Maybe that's why we've both known for the last four years exactly what and who Lucifer is, and we suck at being active listeners. Meanwhile, his brother convinces you to try and kill him before kidnapping me. On top of that, the ass tries to brainwash me with fear, and THAT ONE is the angel." 

"What?" 

"Are you even keeping up? _Michael?"_

"Right. Right..." Dan is blinking, nodding his head while stepping from foot to foot. 

"Michael hurt me, Dan... Michael waited till Lucifer and I were apart, broke into my home and overpowered me, _choking me out_ before dragged me to a dirty cage and kept me locked up there away from you, and Trixie. Away from Lucifer after you had just tried to kill him. After Michael convinced you to kill him. Michael was the one to do all those things, and he's still the one you want to be listening to?" 

"Maybe they're all crazy, and I don't want any of them around you and Trixie. Maybe we can—" 

"You think there's anywhere we can go now that Lucifer won't find me?" Chloe interrupts, condescension brimming on the edge of her voice. She starts to realize she may sound manic lately, drunk on her love. 

"After what Michael did to me, whatever it is you want to call that? You think that Lucifer, and I'm talking about the man we've known for the last four years, not what you interpret," Chloe leans in closer before whispering, "you know, Satan to be. You think there is anything that would stop him from protecting me? Finding me? Trying to prevent this from ever happening again?" 

She sighs and murmurs to herself, "It’s going to take forever to calm him down and convince him I’m able to take care of myself."

Dan shudders at her words before pressing forward. "Why, Chloe? Why **him**? Why, after knowing?" 

"How many times has he saved our baby Dan? Saved me? Saved you?" She implores him, all while working to remain open and empathetic to his obvious despair over this predicament. "We both act strong, like we don’t need the help, but at this point without him… What would have become of Trix? You’d probably be serving time, and I’d be dead."  
  
Chloe doesn't know where this vindictive and petty urge to punish Dan comes from when it chooses to rear its ugly head. Especially after, part of the reason she managed to get kidnapped was due to her dismissal of Lucifer for being too obsessed with exacting revenge on _Detective Douche_. Chloe thinks it may have to do with her own poor reaction to Lucifer's devil face, and how she's never had a chance to prove to him that although her initial response she couldn't change, she had now seen it a handful of times and found herself stirred by him.

Particularly when he saved her by embracing that side of himself while trapped at the Mayan. 

"We deal with criminals everyday, Chloe," Dan spits out with loathing, "We both know that you can do good things and still be evil." 

"How **dare** you!" Ella intervenes. Chloe and Dan turn around, surprised by the interruption.

"Seriously, Dan? After all this time, you're going to pull this crap now?! So, what if Lucifer doesn't break character no matter what you throw at him. And okay, maybe he's weird and illusive. Sure, he's known to abandon us, leaving us feeling like we must have done something wrong but, BUT!" Ella yells. "Despite all of that, he's our friend! And when he's here, he's done nothing but help us bring bad guys down and take care of so many people." 

An exasperated watery laugh escapes Dan, moving his head and looking in disbelief between Chloe and Ella. Chloe grins a small, sad smile allowing the forensic scientist to take the lead. 

"Ella—" Dan tries, but Ella won't have it. 

"No, Dan! I've had it, I really have. The whole time he was gone, we talked about what it would be like if they finally FINALLY figured their Deckerstar magic out, and then they _did_ , and it was _awesome_ ," Ella's voice goes a little wistful and groggy. "And that? That is currently one of the only things that are helping me hold it together because my _boyfriend_ turned out to be _the freaking Anti-Christ, so could you **please** , just... friggin_' _chiiiillll."_

Dan's unfocused gaze turns back to Ella, as though he seems to be remembering other people have feelings, too. Chloe, turns to Ella and takes an inventory of her friend. 

"Hey Ella, you doing okay?" 

"Sure! Yup! Fine." Ella draws her body backwards away from them. She sways a bit on the stairs, and Chloe stretches her hand out to grab Ella's shoulder.

"Totally normal Ella here. I mean, I just spent the last thirty hours thinking one of my closest friends might have been the next victim of my psychopathic serial killer ex-boyfriend. But not before he tries to murder me. Only to find out that, you know, maybe not? But how would I know! Because my other bestie who pretends to be the Devil, the one that I worked said best-friend-kidnapping case with, just takes off without me! With my other friend, her ex-husband and our resident bounty-hunter-turned-consultant, _the only other person in the trust circle I know besides Linda..._ "  
  
The weight of what their pint-sized friend and co-worker is telling them washes over Dan and Chloe. 

"And they go save her, and no one has explained to me what the hell happened. But I'm not blaming you, Chloe. This isn't an Ella is mad at Chloe thing. This is an Ella doesn't understand the context of what is happening around her. What may or may not be reality anymore? Because instead… Now Dan is freaking out that Lucifer IS el diablo and falling into an existential passive-aggressive babble hole, and Chloe, you deservedly should go home and get some sleep. _I mean, really, you look exhausted, Chica, Creo que yo también necesito dormir..._ " 

Ella stares off into the distance, her eyes glassing over, and both Chloe and Dan try following her gaze to see what may have pulled her away from her rant, but there is nothing there. 

"Yes. Sleep." Ella announces dreamily before turning to Dan, "Sleep?" 

He hesitates before nodding, and Ella turns her whole body towards Chloe and points her way. 

"Sleep?" 

"I should," Chloe remarks, before checking her phone for the time, "But I need to go pick up Trixie and clean up my apartment." 

"I'll pick up Trixie," Dan hastily offers. Chloe narrows her eyes at him, concern growing into the pit of her stomach. 

"I'm not going to run away to Rome, Chloe." Dan scathingly amends, folding his own arms. "Maybe my parents' for the week. Whatever I choose that should give you enough time to sleep, figure out what the hell happened here, and clean up your apartment." 

Chloe nods. It sounds reasonable to her, but she can't shake the fear of Dan taking Trixie away from her. She envisions him picking her up from Olga's and driving straight to the airport to board a plane. 

After all, it's what she did. 

The only difference is that there was something— or rather— someone to return home to. 

"It's still Monday, Dan. You can have her next week like we originally planned," Chloe nods at him before dragging her tired limbs up the stairs, forgetting Linda waiting for her in the interrogation room. 

Ella and Dan watch her walk away before looking at each other. The forensic scientist shrugs before Dan calls out after the Detective, "This conversation isn't over Chloe, just postponed." 

"Yeah, yeah…" Chloe retorts. _Detective Douche._

"Should we have told her?" Ella asks him, rubbing her eyes as Dan puts an arm around her and begins to walk her up the stairs. They both agreed that sleep was imminent, after all. 

"That it's Tuesday? No... She'll figure it out soon enough." 

~^^x^^~

Once Chloe reaches the door to the parkade, she extracts her phone out of her pocket as she proceeds her way to her police cruiser, delighted to have felt its pulse against her leg. 

> **1 new message  
>  **Linda 

Cursing herself for not remembering her friend back in the interrogation room, Chloe hastily begins typing back to her. 

> **LINDA SMS**
> 
> Linda || 3:34 p.m.
> 
> Chloe? I can't seem to find you?   
>    
>    
> 
> 
> Chloe || 3:35 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  I'm SO sorry Linda, I got side-tracked |   
>  by Dan and Ella before I remembered Trixie |   
>  and left. I didn't mean to forget to tell you. | 
> 
>   
>    
>    
>  Linda || 3:37 p.m. 
> 
> No, that's fine... I get it 

Chloe flips through her SMS's and checks to see if she's missed anything. But as she scrolls through a vast amount of texts from practically everyone she knows, there is nothing new from Lucifer, Maze or Amenadiel. She chews her bottom lip at the radio silence before opening Lucifer's text log and begins typing.

> **LUCIFER SMS**
> 
> Chloe || 3:42 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Lucifer, are you okay? Don't play hard to |   
>  get for too long... | 

The Detective hesitates before sending. She's been trying to be 'fun' again, but Lucifer has hardly been back a month at best, and she _was_ just kidnapped. Chloe adds 😉 to the text for good measure and hears other uniformed officers approaching. Hastily, she ducks into her vehicle before pulling the phone out again and switches over to Linda's message log.

> **LINDA SMS**
> 
> Chloe || 3:45 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Anything? | 
> 
> Linda || 3:46 p.m. 
> 
> No. Nothing 
> 
>   
>  Linda || 3:46 p.m. 
> 
> You? 
> 
> Chloe || 3:46 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Nada. Maze? | 

She waits, but a text from Linda doesn't seem to be materializing any time soon. She really must get going, but she changes over to Lucifer's message log again. 

> **LUCIFER SMS**
> 
> Chloe || 3:50 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Really though, I'm sorry. Could you text |   
>  me back or even Linda and let us know |   
>  if you and Amenadiel are together? |   
>  |   
>  |   
>  |   
>  Chloe || 3:50 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Or if you're ok? | 

Chloe hears them before they appear, Dan and Ella's laughter before she watches them get into his Camaro. She narrows her eyes before she feels her phone buzz in her hands. Her heart leaps, and she looks down to find her Lieutenant's name appear across the screen. 

> **1 new message  
>  **Lt. Mackay 

"Shit." Chloe mutters, realizing immediately her oversight. She thumbs open the chat log.

> **Lt. MAcKAY SMS**
> 
> Lt. MacKay || 3:51 p.m. 
> 
> Decker? I'm quite sure I heard you  
>  were found and seen at the station,
> 
> I look around, I can't see you here. 
> 
> Chloe || 3:51 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Sorry lieutenant |   
>  Haven't slept in over twenty-four hours. |   
>  It was suggested I head home and |   
>  shower get some sleep, before coming |   
>  back to fill out paperwork tomorrow. | 

  
  
  


Chloe bites her thumbnail as she waits patiently for Lt. MacKay to return her text so she actually has permission to leave, cursing herself for just assuming she could take off as such. Really, she should know Procedure, but lately, with all this extra celestial stuff adding up on top of the regular stress, and you know, possible angel-induced brain damage, she worries she might be slipping.

> **Lt. MAcKAY SMS**
> 
> Lt. MacKay || 3:57 p.m. 
> 
> Of course, Decker. Just remember  
>  your apartment was an active crime  
>  scene not more than a couple hours  
>  ago.  
>    
>  I’ve talked to Espinoza about being  
>  point on your current open cases.  
>    
>  Rest. We will see you Monday  
>  morning next week.

Sighing in relief Chloe puts the phone in her lap before she pulls out of the parking lot and heads towards her apartment. As she is deep in thought she hits a bout of gridlock, slowing to a halt in the midday L.A. heat. She pulls out her phone once more, but there are no new messages. 

Chloe looks at the vehicles to her left, baking in the mid-day sun, but it appears empty. Curious, she turns to her right and peers into vehicles as she goes, none of which seem to have anyone driving them. Tinnitus begins to ring in her ears before a sickening, crunching sound can be felt and heard in a cacophony all around her. Her body contorts to the shape of whatever has passed through her driver's side door, pushing metal into her flesh.

Visions of herself in a hospital bed fill her. She's staring at a doppelganger of herself. Chloe looks at the body, tubes fastened to it, and all she can hear is the noise of a ringing filling her mind. 

A lithe being, one blue eye, one black, leans against a wall nearby her bed, violin in hand.

She startles awake and looks around her, her heart pounding in her ears, the vehicles around her are still at a standstill, but as she looks ahead, she sees the truck in front of her begin its crawl forward. Gasping for breath, she begins to whimper before shaking her head and swallowing. 

Now is not the time. Now is the time for Trixie.

When she reaches their apartment complex, she looks down at the phone sitting in her lap and sees more messages from Linda. 

> **LINDA SMS**
> 
> Linda || 4:20 p.m. 
> 
> Chloe, I'm trying to rationalize this
> 
> Linda || 4:22 p.m.
> 
> But I'm growing concerned
> 
> Chloe || 4:40 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  I mean, I have a few strings I could pull |   
>  in missing persons, but what do I say? |   
>  Our partner's psychotic brother, |   
>  Lucifer's twin, is armed and dangerous? |   
>  |   
>  |   
>  |   
>  Chloe || 4:40 p.m. |   
>  Wings count, right? | 
> 
> Linda || 4:40 p.m. 
> 
> HA! 
> 
> Linda || 4:41 p.m. 
> 
> I highly suspect that Lucifer and  
>  Amenadiel can deal with Michael  
>  if wings are involved 
> 
> Linda || 4:41 p.m. 
> 
> I've seen the crime scene photos 

Chuckling, Chloe puts the phone in her pocket before reaching Olga's door to extract her child. The appearance of the woman's apartment is vastly different from Chloe's. It has little garden gnomes in plant pots and stain glass hanging in her kitchen window. Knocking, _shave and a haircut, two bits,_ Chloe can hear shuffling from inside and takes a step back. It takes Olga a moment before opening the large wooden door a few inches, eyeing Chloe suspiciously. 

"You late." She declares. 

"Yes, sorry, Olga. Gridlock." Chloe offers. Olga steps backwards and allows Chloe to enter the home. Chloe sees Trixie sitting at the kitchen table, her books out doing homework. 

"Gridlock Olga. Case Olga. Accident Olga." Olga recites grumpily.  
  
"Do not apologize to old Olga." She complains, "Apologize to child." 

Chloe fights the urge to roll her eyes at her sitter regardless of how valid or invalid Olga's complaints are. 

"Trixella, let's roll," Chloe announces, and Trixie looks up at her mom, an annoyed look on her face as she packs her bag and heads to the door. 

"Thanks, Olga," Trixie calls out. Chloe notices that she's wearing her signature buns, but her outfit lacks her usually cheerful catchphrases or colour. 

"Yes, yes, child. Until next time." 

Chloe closes the door behind them and looks down the walkway towards their home. A few hours, the Lieutenant said. 

"I was thinking..." Chloe starts and looks down at Trixie. "Maybe we could go have a sleepover at Lucifer's place tonight." 

Trixie's eyes grow excited with wonder. "What really? Can we go grab an overnight bag?" 

Trixie pulls on Chloe's sore hand, and she winces but doesn't make a sound. Instead, she stands her ground, causing Trixie to freeze in her tracks and turn to her mother.

"Actually," Chloe says, pushing her hair behind her ear. "I thought I might splurge, and we take an Uber. I'm tired from working that case all night. Maybe we stop and pick up a pair of new pj's and a toothbrush. We can grab dinner and then head over?" 

Trixie eyes Chloe curiously, taking in her wrapped hand and her dirty fingers. 

"Are you okay, mom? What happened?" 

"I'm definitely okay, baby, now that I'm with you. I need to have a shower, get some food in me and then I hope to hop into bed. But first— " Chloe says, bringing her best as she acts the part of the calm and collected mother. 

"Let's go have a Trixie-mom date!" She declares as she brings up her phone pulls up her Uber app. "One where we don't end up in the hospital." 

As they walk to the street, Chloe has another idea. "Trix?" 

"Mhm?" Trixie answers, walking in step with Chloe, her backpack slung over one shoulder. 

"Have you heard from Maze at all lately?" 

"You mean since the night she babysat me so you could go see Linda? The night Lucifer asked for a game night?" 

Chloe halts for a second, she doesn't remember telling Trixie about how Lucifer wanted a game night, but she also knows that they have their own private conversations, just like Maze and Trixie have a complex relationship outside of her as well. 

"Sure?" Chloe asks because she's unsure if she remembers a time after that, that Maze has babysat or been called in on Trixie duty. 

"No, Momma, I haven't heard from her since then. Why is something wrong?" 

Chloe is getting better at not fibbing to Trixie in these situations where she wants to protect her or because it seems like the more comfortable/right thing to do. She reflects on how she wants to address the question. 

"I don't know." She responds carefully. "I'm trying to find out, but Lucifer and Maze are not answering me, so I am trying to be patient." 

Trixie nods as the Uber pulls up, and Chloe is relieved that Trixie doesn't pry any more after that, as they enter a stranger's vehicle. Chloe looks down at the phone in her hand and begins to text Linda again. 

> **LINDA SMS**
> 
> Chloe || 5:00 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  I’m having a tough time lining some details |   
>  up Linda. Maze was left behind to confront |   
>  Michael. If Michael was at the station, what |   
>  happened to Maze? |   
>  |   
>  She's not answering either. | 
> 
> Linda || 5:04 p.m.   
>    
>  I have had Maze show up half dead to  
>  make sure that we are okay. I can’t see  
>  Michael being able to take Maze, Lucifer  
>  and Amenadiel out, can you?  
>    
>  If he had, wouldn’t he have stuck around  
>  to gloat? They are probably dealing with  
>  family issues and will be home soon.  
>  Whatever the reason, we don't have much  
>  to go on, so there's no point in worrying  
>  yet

Chloe would like to agree. Truly she would. Linda is as sound in her judgement as Chloe feels as sound as this is a Michael issue. But no matter how she turns this puzzle piece, Chloe feels in her gut that maybe, a few weeks ago, she pushed Maze too far when she passive-aggressively called her down. Telling her that Lucifer was desperate if he was going to go to her. 

She knew it was uncalled for, but she was quite sure at that moment that Maze knew that Lucifer wasn't... _well_ was Michael. She likes to believe she knows Lucifer best of all, hellfire, and wings and all, but she's not stupid enough to think for one second that the next best person to grasp who or how Lucifer is and behaves, is his own personal pet demon. 

So angry was Chloe, she pushed the demon's buttons, see if she could get a reaction that would reveal any more truth about the situation, about the _reality_ of Lucifer 2.0. It may have cut deeper because before Maze had been perfect, absolutely the closest thing she had to a confidant when Lucifer left. In ways, she and Maze communicated better than Lucifer and she had, almost reading each other's minds. But that had come at the cost of personal space, something that neither had felt the need for after both being abandoned. 

Chloe wondered if Maze had been trying to punish her and Lucifer since she had turned her away when she went to kiss her that day in the storage locker about a month ago. She figured for how often Maze seemed to become a turncoat, that she could gaslight her this _one_ time and maybe earn forgiveness down the road. 

She didn't expect this, whatever this is. 

> **LINDA SMS**
> 
> Chloe || 5:10 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Linda, what if Maze isn't ‘with’ the boys? | 
> 
> Linda || 5:11 p.m. 
> 
> ? 
> 
> Chloe || 5:11 p.m. |   
>  |   
>  Did I ever tell you I caught her kissing |   
>  Michael? When I thought he was Lucifer? | 
> 
> Linda || 5:15 p.m. 
> 
> Can I call? 

Chloe sighs, wishing that she could, but she thinks it would be considered rude in their current state. 

> **LINDA SMS**

Chloe || 5:16 p.m. |   
|   
I'm in an Uber right now. I have a better |   
idea, meet me at the penthouse? |   
I have Trixie with me. We can pull |   
another all-nighter if we must. | 

Chloe puts down the phone and focuses on Trixie beside her. The preteens' face is set with frustrated brows and tight lips. Chloe realizes that it might be time to get her daughter a phone too. She always looks so annoyed and impatient when she watches everyone else around her become tied up on theirs. After the Snapchat bully, Chloe became stricter with what apps were downloaded into their iPad and had kept Trixie's technology time to a record-low, favouring the outdoors, her artistic pursuits, and even Maze's training for physical exercise. 

But now? Now she has angels and demons and even the Devil in her life, and she deserves to have her own way of communicating with them outside of patiently waiting for her mother to tell her what in God's name is actually going on. Who knows, maybe her daughter would end up getting more out of them than she ever could. Trixie did have a knack for getting Maze and Lucifer to open up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I asked about pictures for text, but I didn't want to make it awful for anyone who didn't have that kind of data.


	7. Part I: Dog Sanctuary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THIS STORY CONTAINS FLASHBACKS OF TRAUMA AND TRIGGERS ASSOCIATED WITH ASSAULT.
> 
> READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
> 
> ________________________
> 
> Chapter Playlist: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaB2EMIcca0GF7NrWC5wl1vS
> 
> FULL SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaD9thdXvGwpstPh7S0HLHdN

_And I'll use you as a makeshift gauge  
Of how much to give and how much to take_

_Chloe blinks._

_She whirls her head left and right. She's alone._

_Leaving the Evidence closet, she find everyone standing in absolute and utter stillness, glass hangs in the air a few feet away from Maze. The fractures gleam like jewels as her demon friend cowers on the ground. Chloe motions to her, but Maze gawks through the Detective, fear and anger distorting her face. Chloe tries to listen to the world around her, however a ringing permeating her ears, not unlike when she fires her handgun. The sound pulses through her like waves. Turning, she finds three puffed-up angels, one being her partner standing in the lustrous ambient light of an older man occupying the stairs._

_The ringing is awful and disturbing. She calls to Lucifer, but no one turns, her voice unable to cut through the loud pitch playing in her ears. As she approaches the group, she sees Michael's mouth moving, Amenadiel too, a conversation happening between the four. Still, no one acknowledges Chloe's presence. She waves her hands in front of Lucifer's face, a face full of abject horror and fascination towards the man at the top of the stairs. She follows his gaze and is surprised when the older man looks down towards her and winks._

"Momma, we're here." 

She wakes with a start in the back of an Uber; Lux, to their right. Chloe inhales deeply before unbuckling and reaching into her purse to pay the driver. Trixie exits and slams the door, putting her backpack on and walking through the front entrance of one of the most notorious nightclubs in L.A. The bodyguards are mindful of who Trixie is and let her pass without any hesitation, much to the chagrin of the front of the line waiting outside. 

Chloe smiles grimly at the men before catching up to Trixie and placing her arm around her daughter before guiding her directly to the elevator. But for all her good intentions, Trixie is fascinated by the lights and crowd of employees getting ready down below. 

Once they're in the elevator, the Detective slips the phone out of her pocket once more to check and see if there's been any change.  
  
Nothing, so she tries again.

> **Lucifer SMS**
> 
>   
>    
> Chloe || 6:25 p.m. |   
>  |   
> Just so you know, since we're fairly sure |   
>  we know you're both together, that Linda |   
> and I are spending the night at |   
> the penthouse… |   
>  |   
> With the kids. |   
>  |   
>  |   
>  |   
> Chloe || 6:26 p.m. |   
>  |   
> So, depending on when you two get back |   
> from whatever adventure you’re |   
> apparently on. |   
>  |   
>  |   
>  |   
> Chloe || 6:26 p.m. |   
>  |   
> There might be awake/sleeping 'taxing |   
> little burdens' getting their germs on |   
> everything. |   
> 

As the elevator dings, and the doors open Chloe discovers that Linda had already arrived; Charlie's pack and play set up a few feet away from the Italian leather sofa. A blanket set out with the baby having tummy time, Linda down on the floor beside him.

"Hey, Trixie," Linda calls to the eleven-year-old as she half leaps/half runs into the room. 

"Hey Linda," Trixie responds, looking down at the sitting baby. "You want a break?" 

Linda's smile tightens, "Thanks Trix." 

Linda lifts herself from the floor and strolls over to the bar where Chloe is already pouring herself a bourbon. She glances across to Linda and holds the bottle as an offering. 

Chloe extracts two glasses and peers over at Trixie, currently making funny faces at Charlie, as he titters with delight.

"I've resorted to trying to tease him by text." Chloe offers, splashing a finger into Linda's glass before pouring the same amount for herself. "I don't think we'll be passing any Bechdel tests tonight." 

Linda shrugs, groaning at the same time before sipping the liquid amber in her glass. "I've texted enough explaining that I'd like to know what's up. There's nothing I can do other than wait, take care of our son and not waste energy on worrying. So here we are." 

"Linda, that sounds so surgical. What's happening with you two? I feel like Lucifer, and I can be black holes, sucking everyone else into our drama." 

Linda's grin reaches her eyes. She looks like how she often does on one of their Tribe-nights; Happy and relaxed. She traces the pad of her finger along the rim of the glass as she speaks. 

"The thing is, I am not ready to forgive Amenadiel, and I don't know if I'll ever be, and I'm okay with that. I'm okay with focusing on raising Charlie in a safe and co-parenting environment with a man I know is fascinating and kind. Not even a man, a freaking angel! Who loves his son as much as I do. So much so that he wanted to take him to Heaven to protect him from the evils of this world. HEAVEN. To Amenadiel, home. To me, a place, the scant few of us lucky enough get to go when we _die_. So, if my very logical, very human emotions cannot fathom a future where I can accept that, are we really right for each other?"  
  
Linda shrugs, "I mean, I think we can both agree, sometimes love isn't enough." 

Chloe nods because currently, the Detective can't decide if _less_ than love could be enough. She swallows, realizing she should say something, "That's… that's a lot to unpack, Linda.”

"Feels like I just moved," Linda hears Charlie begin to cry. 

"Like clockwork," Linda declares before heading to her child. Chloe watches as she makes her way over to Trixie and Charlie before she picks up her phone and texts Lucifer again. 

> **LUCIFER SMS**
> 
> Chloe || 6:46 p.m. |   
>  |   
> You know, just in case you thought |   
> your day was already winning |   
> the award for ‘best day ever!’ | 
> 
> Lucifer || 6:50 p.m. 
> 
> My brothers are with me yes.   
> We are at one of my other properties  
>   
> I wasn’t having you come home  
> to your kidnapper 
> 
> Chloe || 6:50 p.m. |   
>  |   
> Home? ^^ | 
> 
> Lucifer || 6:51 p.m. 
> 
> Yes, well, your homely little  
> apartment must still be in shambles,  
> Detective. I presumed you’d be headed  
> to Lux

Chloe breathes out, relief flooding her as she looks over to Linda, demonstrating to Trixie how she bottle feeds Charlie. "We just have to go warm this up in the sink under some warm water." 

She considers letting Linda know she's gotten a response but knows she will have an opportunity once Charlie is settled. She listens as Linda, Trixie, and Charlie all pass by her up the stairs to go down the narrow corridor to the lavish bathroom behind the bar. 

"I know Lucifer thinks he's above microwaves, but doesn't he know California is in a forever draught?" Linda jokes. Chloe chuckles and watches them leave her field of vision before focusing on her phone once more.

> **LUCIFER SMS**
> 
> Chloe || 6:53 p.m. |   
>  |   
> I'm assuming you're talking about |   
> Amenadiel and Michael. Any of your |   
>  other siblings involved? | 
> 
> Lucifer || 6:54 p.m. 
> 
> No, just a snivelling traitorous demon  
> who now is missing

But Chloe knows, _knows_ that there is more to the story from the lack of information Lucifer reveals. If Chloe were a TMI odometer, Lucifer was constantly causing her to peak (in more ways than one.) She has learned over the years that when he isn't telling her everything, he is hiding more than she could imagine. 

> **LUCIFER SMS**

Chloe || 6:55 p.m. |   
|   
And? | 

Moments go by. Linda exits the bathroom with Trixie in tow, a very noisy baby in her arms. Chloe resumes observing as Trixie and Linda work together to get a desperate Charlie ready for bed. Her phone buzzes in her hand, and she looks down to see his reply.

> **LUCIFER SMS**
> 
> Lucifer || 7:01 p.m.   
>   
> And Father 
> 
> Chloe || 7:02 p.m. |   
>  |   
> You’re always saying that. How can you |   
>  be so sure your Father's involved? | 

Chloe sips the rest of her drink before returning the decanter to its rightful place. Charlie's cries grow louder and more pressing, pulling Chloe's attention. She realizes she needs a shower and sleep as Charlie's piercing wails slice through her. Linda and Trixie situate themselves on the couch, and Linda coaches Trixie on how baby Charlie should be handled while she's feeding him and how when he's finished, Trixie will need to try to burp him. She places her phone in her pocket and walks over to the scene in the living room, watching as Trixie and Charlie settle into the corner, the sound of the baby drinking from the bottle replacing his cries. She feels her back-pocket buzz and pulls the phone out to see his response.

> **Lucifer SMS**

> Lucifer || 7:12 p.m.   
>   
> 
> 
> Lucifer ||7:12 p.m. 
> 
> Buggar 
> 
> Lucifer || 7:12 p.m. 
> 
> Of course, he bloody knows  
> exactly when to look up! 

Chloe squeals and drops the phone, a flush crawling up her face. Linda is immediately drawn to the obviously odd reaction. The Detective doesn't know how to explain to Linda that she dreamed about what God looked like, exactly, only an hour ago.

Instead, she gives Linda a guarded look and picks up the phone before jerking her head towards the balcony.   
  
"Just like that, Trix, exactly." Linda offers before she removes herself from the comfort of the sofa and follows Chloe outside.   
  
Chloe shoves the phone into Linda's chest. Linda makes a little 'oof' sound before Chloe bites her thumb and watches the light trace patterns against her friend’s face.  
  
“What am I looking at here, Chloe?” Linda asks, confused as she zooms in on the photo in the chat message.

“Just read!” Chloe yelps and begins to pace.

Why was God in her dreams? After Michael and the fear mojo, she gets the accident keeping her awake, but God?

She hasn’t spoken to anyone about the nightmares. The terror that used to fill her dreams when she finally succumbed to sleep. She hadn’t spoken to anyone about the small amount of time that went missing between the accident and when she walked out to see Dan, Maze, Trixie, and Ella waiting for her.

Most of her family, sans Lucifer.

But then she was up and about. And a less than three weeks later, Lee was murdered, and Michael was there. After that, things became so Lucifer/Gift/Michael/Hell driven she felt fine pushing it deep down into the back of her mind where it sat gathering dust for the day she wasn’t focused on her daughter, or Lucifer, or a case. When she was finally expected to breathe, to relax.

“Oh, my _God._ ” Linda exhales.

“Precisely.”  
  
“Well, we at least know where Amenadiel gets his looks from.”

Chloe’s head shoots up to meet Linda’s gaze, witnessing the wry smile on her friend’s face before they both burst out laughing.

Later, when Trixie is softly snoring in Lucifer’s king-size bed (Something Chloe would have never let happen if she hadn’t maintained the upkeep of the Penthouse herself in his absence), She and Linda murmur to each other on the balcony. As they stare into the light-polluted sky, it’s not entirely warm, but it’s one of the only separations from the rest of the suite and their children, so they both scrounged for blankets and set themselves up as soon as they had a chance.

“It’s not that I don’t know he loves me,” Chloe sighs, “I mean OBVIOUSLY, he loves me. It’s not like it’s some major secret, and I’m not after him to admit it. It’s not about that.”  
  
“Right am I Therapist-Linda or Friend-Linda right now?” Linda asks, stifling a yawn.

“I take my Linda’s in any way I can get them.” 

“Well, Therapist-Linda would ask you questions so that you can come to the realization yourself as to what your problem with the situation is.”

“I think we’re past that part.” Chloe huffs a laugh.

“Oh, I agree. So, do you want me to tell you I get why you’re so frustrated? Especially after defeating a prophecy that’s literally focused on love. Or do you want me to tell you that Lucifer and truthfully Amenadiel, too, may never understand love the way we comprehend it? Or do I just… give you hugs which are not my superpower but Ella’s?”

“I think I need you to just tell me they’re just three dumb words.”

“I won't because they are not three dumb words. Of course, actions are what matters, but that’s what makes words matter, the actions that back them up. But I can tell you it’s okay to want to let it go and let Lucifer process this. I can tell you I promise I would never coerce him into saying them even if he means them, which I think we both know.”

And they both nod their heads.

“SOOO unethical.” Linda mutters.

“I know, I’m sorry.” 

The sounds of the traffic below permeated their comfortable silence, Chloe feels a tingling sensation, partly from the alcohol, most likely from the lack of sleep. 

“Sometimes I stare at Charlie's face _—_ " Linda's words pierce through her and she shudders before looking over, " _—_ And I think to myself about how much I love him, and my heart starts to hurt with so much affection that it feels like it’s going to burst. Then I wonder, was Amenadiel ever that tiny, that vulnerable? Was Lucifer?”  
  
Chloe’s eyes begin to water as Linda peers into the Penthouse at the pack-and-play. “Were they ever held when they cried, or comforted in other ways? We are taught in school about cultural differences and how they can affect growth and development. But in almost every single place on earth, failure to thrive is real. There is a reason why infant mortality rates are highest in orphanages.”

The unspoken message is heard loud and clear between them. It dawns on Chloe.

“We’ve met their mother.”

“Not just met, she almost killed me.” Linda murmurs.

“What the hell, Linda?” Chloe whispers but it’s rhetorical.

“She almost killed you too.” Linda sighs.

“If I wasn’t so exhausted, I feel like that would shock me,” Chloe mutters as she picks up her drink sitting on the small table they are sharing. Linda does the same and clinks it against Chloe’s before sipping as well.

“If I weren’t so exhausted, I’d be ashamed about telling you. Let’s just add that to the unethical list.”

“Definitely, Friend-Linda.”

“Friend-Linda is far more fun.” Linda yawns.

“So, Charlotte was their mom the whole time?”

Linda shakes her head, “Just in the beginning, after the incident where she lost her memory, that was the real Charlotte. That’s why Amenadiel and Lucifer took care of her so much after the fall. To protect her and help her cope with what had happened... Speaking of which, how are you doing?"

"How do you mean?"

"Chloe you were kidnapped by Lucifer's twin brother, who, by the sound of things, you've been dealing with for awhile now on your own—"

"Oh I wouldn't say it was that long... It was just like I said, you know? When I came in and said that he was acting strange? Well I had figured it out when I kissed him—"  
  
Linda's gaze snaps to Chloe and narrows, but Chloe continues on without much notice, "—so I figured, I would try seducing him and seeing how he behaved and sure enough... I shot him. And... well he wasn't Lucifer so..."

Linda blinks at her.

"Chloe."

"Hmm?"

"Does any one else know about this?"

She tilts her head to the side and chews her lip as she thinks about the question, "Oh just, Michael, and now you."

"You've been holding on to that for a month?"

"Uh-huh." Chloe practically sings before sipping her drink.

"We should probably talk about this after you get some sleep. When's the last time you actually rested? Instead of staying up all night drinking, and keeping me company."  
  
"You're right... I just thought they'd be back by now."

"I know," Linda smiles, and squeezes Chloe's hand. 

“Who do you to talk to when things are crazy?” 

"Well, I’ve got you now, don’t I?" Linda smiles. "And I had Maze. To be fair, I still have Maze. She’s been so good to me through all of this, although…" Linda trails off, “We’ve not seen eye-to-eye on a few interpersonal conflicts, as of late."

Chloe shakes her head. "Care to share?"

Linda looks over at Chloe and shrugs. "Charlie is sick, Maze is missing, God has called a family meeting with his sons, you were kidnapped, Ella was almost murdered. My thing? My thing…"

Linda trails off again, and Chloe grows concerned and suspicious.

"Not tonight."

“If you were to travel back in time and tell yourself five years ago what your life would be like now—“

“Chloe, five years ago, I was one year into a separation from my narcissistic husband and my five-year goal was to retire early so I could move to Mexico and start a dog sanctuary.”

The Detective spits her drink out a little back into her glass, coughing in the process.

“Oh yeah. Biiiiiiiig aspirations,” Linda sips her soda, "And every road I’ve taken, choice I’ve made, has lead me here."  
  
"Do you ever wonder if you had taken other roads if it’s possible we would have still ended up where we are now?"  
  
"There’s no telling either way. What I do know is I love that my son has an amazing family full of angels, demons, and humans. I love that he has an Auntie Chloe and Auntie Maze.”

Chloe hums in agreement, “To family.”

~^^x^^~

_Chloe sits at her dining room table staring at a plate of peas and potatoes on her plate. The wood grain of her table is fascinating, but she senses she should look up. There is dread deep within her at the thought.  
  
"Chloe?" She hears Linda call to her, and the Detective looks up from her place setting and is transported out of her apartment. Linda stands a distance away from her, dressed in one of her form fitting dress suits, in stark white. She holds Charlie in an outfit that appears to be baptism garments. _

_Behind Linda, a vast plain of glimmering white earth, crusted and cracked from the sun stretches from below their feet until the land meets a silver blue sky along the horizon.  
  
Linda searches Chloe's eyes curiously. "Can you please pass the salt?" _

_Chloe looks down at her hands full of white pillars of sodium as they slip through her fingers, the grains merging with the flats below her._

_"Well... What are you going to do now? " Linda asks, folding her arms. Her dress is different somehow, but Chloe can't place it. Charlie now stands behind her, fully grown, taller than Linda. He wears a white t-shirt and pants, but it doesn't matter because she knows there is something else that must be done._

_Chloe reaches for her thigh, grabbing her firearm and turns away from Linda. She shoots into the distance hitting Michael in the leg, his body crumpling to the ground as he yelps in pain. He's wearing Lucifer's suit._

_He's wearing Lucifer's skin._

_Michael pulls back his hands covered in blood, but she knows it's not Lucifer. He isn't Lucifer. Everything about him is wrong and it makes her sick._

_"Michael, you should learn from your brothers—" God declares, a voice that is warm and rich in ways that comfort her. She turns away from the evil mess in front of her and over to the source of the voice. But God isn't there, instead she sees Amenadiel in a dark grey sleeveless robe, his matching armbands crossed over one another against his chest. Beside him is Lucifer, his hair in curls, a laurel adorning his head. He wears a white robe similar to Amenadiel's only collared. A sliver of an undergarment in black peaks out from underneath the tunic._

_"—Amenadiel and Samael," The voice finishes._

_"Lucifer," Chloe corrects God, annoyance dripping in her tone._

_Lucifer and Amenadiel 's heads all snap to her direction, danger and confusion dripping from their faces. Lucifer's piercing gaze finds her, but no smile reaches his eyes._

_"Shhhh," Chloe overhears, but his lips aren't moving._

She startles awake to Lucifer kneeling beside the bed. Tenderly, he pushes her bedraggled hair away from her face.

"Lucifer?" Chloe half croaks.

"Shhh," He whispers again, "You'll wake the child." 

Her eyes are blurry, and she so desperately wants to see his face, but the most Chloe can make out is just how exhausted he sounds, he too needs rest. His exhaustion is laced with a sadness that sends waves of concern through her tired mind, and she scoots over on the massive king size bed. He rises from his knees and sits down on the side of the mattress beside her.

"Amenadiel?" She sighs to him, her eyes closing, her head feels like someone has hit her with a truck, a sign of possible dehydration in Michael's care.

"Getting settled with Linda and Charlie below in the guest apartments."

"Your Father?"

"At a different property, set up with all the necessities. With Michael." 

Chloe nods against the pillow, stifling a yawn. She feels Trixie groan and roll away from them, still star-fishing to the right side of the bed, her leg touching Chloe.

"We'll talk tomorrow?"

"Of course, Detective." Lucifer murmurs, continuing to move his fingers through her hair. She pulls the covers back as far as she can with him sitting on them. When Chloe doesn't sense him moving, she opens her eyes again and regards his hesitation. 

"She doesn't bite." Chloe whispers, "We can make an Espindeckerstar sandwich." 

Lucifer's chortle, consisting primarily of a besieged scoff, echoes in the large room before he begins to take off his shoes. Once he stands, Chloe pulls the covers back even more and watches as he removes his jacket and drops it on the bed before working on the buttons of his waistcoat and sliding the garment off as well. Neatly he folds the two items and places them on the chair in the corner of the room before coming back to the bed, sliding in beside Chloe. Lucifer's head rests on her right arm as she uses her left hand to run her fingers through his hair, letting out a breath that she'd been holding in since the evidence room. 

"Besides," She mumbles into his ear, "This is the closest you'll get to a threesome again." 

Her joke catches him off guard. She feels as he begins to shake silently against her, some of the tension pulsing through him, releasing somewhat, a silent snicker ringing through her ears. Trixie snores in the most grotesquely _perfect_ way, as if on cue, and they are both laughing, a delirious giggle, the kind one gets at 4 a.m. after being conscious far too long. 

They lay there until their silent snickers die down. Chloe can sense that even though much of the tautness that resided within him is gone, there is still a trembling in her arms. When she feels dampness against her chest, she sets her hand under Lucifer's chin and lifts it to meet his eyes. Even in the dark, she can see how red and raw they look. 

"I cannot stress enough how _sorry_ I am for how I left back at the precinct." Lucifer begins.

She shakes her head; a sense of sorrow runs through her. "No. Not like this. Not now. We can talk about this tomorrow but now? Now is for sleep."

"But I—"

"Lucifer." She says, and she's loud enough that he immediately shuts up for fear of waking Trixie. Chloe bends down and presses her lips to his forehead. 

"I mean it. I'm a detective— your Detective, after all. I think I've figured out what you were attempting— going to say." Chloe goes back to running her hand through his hair, the other under his head wrapped around him possessively. She can feel his heartbeat, and she wishes she had been able to let go of the free will vs. fate-gift-miracle status earlier. 

She has not had the chance to tell Lucifer that she realized the hardest part of Michael's deceptions. How she had learned of their Father's involvement in her origins from a face that looks like his. 

A face that Chloe loves but looked upon her with frustrated disdain. Michael, who thought that she would believe that Lucifer would have sex with Maze after she had told him she needed him, loved him. 

"I should apologize to you. I'm sorry that I let my fears get to me," She sniffs, her eyes begin to sting. "I think it's hard because even though I know, he's not you, in any way. He just… He looks like you, and he pretended to be you. And he was always lying to me. And then he knocked me out and kidnapped me. So even without his buzzkill powers, I think…" 

She swallows, "I think it's been a lot for me. A lot for both of us."

She feels his words mumbled into her clavicle, "You don't have to explain your actions to me, Detective. I'm not the one being roped into someone else's family drama."

"The original family drama."

Chloe crushes him closer to her as he slips his leg between her knees, and she uses the hand enveloped in his hair to lift his head to meet her gaze.

"I'm serious, Lucifer. I'm sorry for even implying I would use **_our_** mojo on you," And then she leans down and kisses his lips chastely before closing her eyes and sighing, "But that's what we're going to call him. Michael? Captain Buzzkill. And I may or may not still be a little perturbed you failed to mention you had a _twin_."

"Yes, well…" Lucifer grumbles, "It wasn't like I thought Michael would be showing up within your lifetime."

"Why, what does it mean if he shows up in my lifetime?"

He lowers his face and presses it into her chest, and she can feel the tremble return in him.

"Hey… Hey, it's okay." Chloe tells him, wrapping herself around him like a chrysalis to the best of her ability. She senses the need to protect him, to soothe him now. 

"Whatever it is, however bad it is, it's going to be okay. I'm here. You're here. We're here. Together." 

Chloe feels him nod , and she rocks his body gently back and forth until she senses Lucifer's breathing slow down, and he's gently puffing into her arms. Chloe lets go and let's him roll back slightly, while making herself comfortable the two bodies crowding her, even in a bed as large as his, and realizes that she is lucky she's as exhausted as she is, that she's able to get to sleep at all the way they're all laying. 

Silver linings.  
  
  


~^^x^^~  
  


Chloe sits on the sofa beside Amenadiel on her left, the sun blazing brightly into the Penthouse. Linda nurses Charlie on the chair closest to the balcony. Lucifer stands outside the circle, a glass in his hand. 

Chloe openly stares at Amenadiel, struggling to stop herself from gawking. Her ears are ringing, and all she can say is, "Huh?" 

"Chloe, it would be such an honour if you would consider Father's request." Amenadiel proposes, and Linda rolls her eyes before crushing her lips together tersely. Chloe almost wishes that this miracle baby/gift status got her some sweet telepathic powers and that Linda had them too so they could talk about how insane this situation is. 

"Nothing on this world or in the Heavens above will be permitted to force you. I have made certain you have a choice in the matter." Lucifer shoots a withering glare at Amenadiel. 

"I have a choice… in… your Father wants me to host, your family… a dinner?" 

The notion sounds so absurd, so surreal, Chloe begins to giggle. "Okay, Lucifer and I will discuss later, privately, and let you know later." 

Chloe watches Amenadiel blink in disappointment momentarily before he offers a watery grin in understanding. Meanwhile, Linda nods in agreement, and Lucifer beams with pride. 

"So, your Dad swings by, slaps you all on the wrist for throwing down in my precinct, only to later request a family dinner." Chloe peers over at Linda, who shrugs. 

"That's it?" Chloe presses. "You two spent nearly fifteen hours with Him and Michael while we waited, and that's all that's it? Lucifer?" 

She has so many questions for both angels that Chloe entertains, letting her natural disposition take over and separating the brothers for interrogation purposes. Perhaps then she could get a straight answer out of them. After she's done with them, Linda could talk them through their trauma. 

A two-for-one type deal. 

Amenadiel sighs and places his elbows on his knees before looking towards his brother cryptically. This fleeting interaction provides Chloe and Linda with an excuse to exchange surprised glances before Amenadiel and Chloe turn back to each other. 

"Father felt it might be in everyone's best interested if he took a vacation and spent some time with his family." 

"More like imposing upon his two earthbound sons for observational research." Lucifer caustically retorts. All eyes fall on him as he practically inhales the last of his drink. The Devil looks warily towards his brother before crossing the room and sitting right beside Chloe. 

Chloe beams at him, taking a moment to turn her body towards him and lace her fingers through his. Amenadiel continues to defend their Father to the group, but Lucifer just stares down at their hands, looking back up to her face and offering the barest of smiles. Even though they are in the middle of this particularly important conversation (Chloe feels like she is closing Amenadiel out, sitting to her left), She can't help but take this moment for them.

"Hi," She breathes out quietly, emotion flooding her as she strokes his hand with her thumb. 

"Hello, Detective." He murmurs back, and they both hear Amenadiel stop his adulations. Chloe realizes how rude they must be appearing, but it's important to her, to them, that they get to have these small moments of normalcy in a universe growing increasingly more chaotic as time marches forward. 

"How did dropping off Trixie go?" She inquires. When she had awoken, both Amenadiel and Linda had explained they had been present when Trixie and Lucifer had taken off for her elementary school. 

"The Urchin was more than happy to choose a vintage vehicle other than the corvette for today's excursion." 

"Why didn't you wake me?" 

"Because," Lucifer exhales before looking over to Linda. "These are the types of things one does for their significant other to show their affections." 

The speech comes out of him stilted as though he remembers each syllable individually, and Chloe narrows her eyes as she watches Linda nod along to the beat of the words, her exhaustion betraying her blatant involvement. As Lucifer gets to the end of the sentence, Linda smiles and nods at him in encouragement before she meets Chloe's eyes, and her smile falters. 

"Riiiight," Chloe says more to Linda than the brothers but uses it to transition. "How long does your Father plan to stay?" She asks Lucifer. 

"Must we get into the—" 

"The longer your Father is here, the longer we all endure Michael. How long does He plan to stay?" 

"Dear ol' Dad hasn't decided. In Silver City time, all he can get away with is a week, maybe two," Lucifer tells her resigned, “Which translates here on Earth as... what, five-six months?" 

_Six months?!_

"And this vacay starts at the Decker household having Taco Tuesday on a Thursday?" 

"Not to fret, Detective, that won't be necessary. Asking you to prepare the meal would be like asking Poe to write a coming-of-age romance. Possible, yet highly unsatisfying." 

She rolls her eyes at him.

"Wait a moment, are you even entertaining the notion?" 

"Linda, will you be there?" Chloe turns and looks at her friend across the room.  
  
Linda, a completely different type of partner-in-crime.  
  
 _Sister-in-crime?_

"Yes, I plan to attend. I realize that although I may be… uncomfortable with the thought, I also do not want to keep Charlie from his grandfather. From GOD." And Linda begins to laugh maniacally. "GOD, Chloe. Sorry." 

Linda plants her hand over her mouth in horror. When she removes it, her mouth is sealed, and she pretends to put a key in and lock it. 

_Yep, thank you, Linda. At least someone gets it._

"So, I wouldn't be the only mortal." 

"That you wouldn't. It appears Father is curious about the humans we have chosen to spend our time with." Amenadiel endeavours. 

Chloe peers over to Amenadiel, someone that even when Lucifer was in Hell, she had come to consider almost like a brother. Kind, supportive, diplomatic Amenadiel. 

Who had texted her every day when Lucifer returned to Hell? Amenadiel.   
Who invited her to supper weekly? Amenadiel.   
Who always checked in with her when she partied at Lux? Amenadiel.   
Who took time to be a civilian consultant at the nunnery? Amenadiel. 

However, he was the same Amenadiel who lied and told her that Lucifer was mentally disturbed when she considered testing his blood. The same Amenadiel that beat Lucifer to a pulp early in her relationship with her partner because their Father demanded his return. The same Amenadiel who almost kidnapped his own child unbeknownst to Linda to raise him in Heaven. 

Even with all these positive qualities, she can't help but feel like he embodies the perfect politician's child. 

"Right," Chloe attempts again. "Hypothetically speaking, who else would be coming to this whole affair?" 

"Including us? Father, Michael and Maze." Amenadiel explains, "He also would like for Dan to be there." 

"Excuse me?" 

"Yes, that was rather my reaction as well," Lucifer chimes behind her, and she can feel him stir as though reaching for his glass. 

"Father has requested Dan's presence. We decided to discuss it with you before asking him." Amenadiel attempts to spin. 

"I think we, Chloe and myself," Linda interrupts, "May need some time to process what you both are telling us, essentially asking us." 

Chloe nods, thankful for Linda's intervention. 

"But just to clarify the facts before we take a break." Chloe swallows. "I am being asked to host a celestial—" 

"And Lilim!" Lucifer interjects. 

"Right. A celestial-Lilim-human family dinner in my tiny ass apartment. One with my ex-roommate, best friends, ex-husband, partner, God and my kidnapper?" 

"So it would seem." Linda interjects, a pained smile on her face as Charlie giggles in the background.

* * *

I thought bogging you down with my practicing my graphic design would be awkward, but I'm going to go out on a limb and add more of the designs in the future unless someone suggests otherwise. Right now I'm working on trying to create content within a few hours instead of days so I'm trying to get faster, so why not practice with my favourite fandom?

Remember, you can find more on the blog: mizukiri.tumblr.com


	8. Part I: Drama King

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When we last left Kismet...  
> Chloe and Linda discuss how they both feel about the disappearance of Amenadiel and Lucifer. Chloe had more vision/dreams. Chloe was asked to host their Family Dinner. 
> 
> ~ ^^x^^ ~
> 
> CHAPTER SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaCC31ibtFhKh5-MeYHkFDne
> 
> ~ ^^x^^ ~
> 
> I won't be able to post on Wednesday, so I should be back next Sunday.

_When you feel embarrassed then I'll be your pride  
When you need directions then I'll be the guide  
For all time  
  
_

Lucifer stares past Linda as he watches as Chloe and Amenadiel convene on his balcony. The Detective holds Charlie in her arms, laughing. Something about her joyous tone and cerulean eyes keep pulling his focus. 

"Lucifer?" Linda charges, peering over the top of her lenses. 

"Hmm?" 

"I was asking how you feel about that," Linda repeats. He wrinkles his brow, tilting his head towards the doctor. And yet Chloe’s still lurking in the background out of focus, her golden hair spilling in waves as she plays with his nephew. 

"I suppose I felt invincible," He leans forward and grabs his glass, lifting it to sip at the spirit within, "To know that no matter what, the Detective would choose me. That even after I was completely useless to her... No mojo, no celestial strength— She still came home with me that evening and reframed the events to me as a positive." 

"You say 'felt,' what changed?" 

"Father's return." 

Linda nods. They sit in silence for a moment, the quietness neither uncomfortable nor pleasant. If Lucifer knew how to respond, he would continue the conversation. Instead, it is much more appealing to get lost in the sight of Chloe laughing at the child in her arms, smiling in delight at his brother.   
  
"I always thought I’d eventually have two, you know? A boy and a girl…" He overhears her quietly confess to Amenadiel, so low that mortal ears would never hear.

Linda obliviously shifts in the armchair, crossing one of her legs over the other, "Can you describe how you’re feeling now?" 

"Uncertain, angry, terrified, confused. Take your bloody pick, Doctor." 

"Those are all healthy, natural feelings to have regarding this situation, Lucifer." 

His stare snaps back to his therapist. "Really? To be concerned my Father will interfere in the relationships with the people under my protection on Earth? It's 'natural' to harbour a murderous rage towards my twin brother, not for throwing me gracelessly from the Silver City but for harming the Detective, my only real vulnerability? It's 'healthy' for me to be terrified that Chloe's life might be in danger from my family?" 

Linda nods in acknowledgement as Lucifer airs his grievances. He sometimes can applaud her for her constant patient professionalism. Other days, he rues the moment he decided to seduce her for the therapy in the first place.

"And I sit here, and I wonder, _why_. Why the Detective keeps choosing m— This. I mean, I can't, choose my family that is. But so far, she keeps coming back. My proverbial baggage can't be something anyone desires." He doesn’t know if it is because he stops to think, or because she’s caught his attention again, but he watches Chloe longingly as she rises to dance with Charlie against her hip, rocking him back and forth as the baby giggles in delight. She’s dressed down more than he’s used to, new clothing to replace the soiled ones that remind her of the kidnapping. They’re not her standard fare. She’s radiant in an eggshell sundress, paired nicely with one of his white dress shirts, underneath a pair of leggings to keep her from getting too cold as the sun warms up the terrace.  
  
"It’s beginning to weigh on me," He tries to put the feeling into words, "Knowing that no matter what I do, I'm fundamentally the reason why she keeps getting harmed or hurt. What happens if I cost Chloe her life? What happens to Beatrice? To Daniel?" 

_To me?  
  
_ "You're taking Dan's involvement in your shooting rather well."

"Yes well, let's just say the Detective's kidnapping and Father's arrival are far more prevalent on my mind than Detective Douche's crisis of faith. I'm far more concerned with choices as of late."

"Having a choice in doing something doesn't always mean there is a reward, Lucifer," Linda works to explain, "Especially making a choice around something you desire as opposed to something done in other’s best interests. Did you not have a choice in going back to Hell?" 

Lucifer’s attention is no longer divided.  
  
"No, Doctor, I absolutely did not!" 

"No one forced your return." 

"If I hadn't, then your offspring would be gone. Is that what you want to hear, Doctor? That Charlie would have been at the demons bidding if I had not claimed the throne once more?" 

Undeterred Linda presses, "But you didn't want to go."

"Of course, I didn't." Lucifer scoffs indignantly, rolling his shoulders.

"But you chose to do it, over letting Charlie be taken. Why?" 

"Because I wasn't going to allow evil to be released!!" Lucifer snaps, his eyes blazing hellfire. Amenadiel and Chloe look towards his voice, echoing from inside the Penthouse, but the light variation between the outdoors and inside is quite different, so Chloe cannot meet his gaze from where she sits. Lucifer slinks lower into his chair. 

"I wasn't going to let any harm come to any of the people I care for. And that included you and the infant." 

"So, you chose to do the right thing, rather than what you desired, which was to stay. Must have been hard." 

"How so?" 

"Your last conversation with Chloe before you left Lucifer. That had to have been very tempting for you to want to stay." 

A realization hits Lucifer as his face tightens, tilting slightly to stare down his aquiline nose, "I must say, Doctor Martin, I know it's very pot-kettle, but all these crossover friendships, patients and conversations, one has to wonder where your confidentiality has gone?" 

"It’s somewhere with my dog sanctuary," Linda mutters, he looks at her curiously but she continues. An air of passion carries in her tone while leaning closer to her patient. "Choice is more than right and wrong, Lucifer.”  
  
A small smile plays across her features, "There are studies to suggest that humans end up getting choice fatigue, our everyday lives becoming entangled in what's the right choice? The best choice? The most honourable choice? What's fair for all parties?"

She slaps her palms against her knees and looks over to him with eyes full of understanding. "Choices come in many forms, and the consequences of our choices help define us." 

"Yes, well, I _choose_ for this conversation to be over so that you can save my partner from your very loud and very squirmy spawn. Perhaps we can discuss choice after you've met my Father." 

~^^x^^~

"We can always arrange for this horrid fiasco to be changed to the Lux building, Detective," Lucifer puts forth to Chloe after supper is finished. The Urchin has moved on to entertaining herself in whatever way she sees fit, quietly, in her room.   
  
Currently, the Devil and the Detective stand side by side, handwashing some of the dishes that for some benign reason she claims to have explained to him three times before do not go into the dishwasher. He cleans, sleeves rolled up high to his elbow, as she robotically dries and stores them.   
  
"You know, it’s occurred to me… Thirteen floors, there must be some you have never visited. Including one with a full industrial kitchen and ballroom."

Chloe hums thoughtfully in response.

He had spent the day helping her clean her apartment. He would have had professionals come to do the job, relieving each other of the triggering trauma, but most of the items in the apartment that were disturbed or broken were taken for evidence, leaving mostly the floor needing to be cleaned, the table right-sided, the chairs repaired. Lucifer knows it could have been worse.

"Mazikeen’s and others guest apartments."

"Makes sense," Chloe offers.  
  
"One floor alone is dedicated to our wardrobe. She still has demonic couture outfits in leather down there." 

"I see." 

"Then of course, there’s the sex dungeon."

"Mmhm."

Lucifer peers down to try and coax a reaction out of her, one of his many delights, watching her roll her beautiful eyes and chew the inside of her lip to stop from laughing. Nothing so far has worked, and he realizes she’s still deeply lost in thought.

"All I'm trying to relay is that we needn't allow the Host to invade your apartment," He adds, oblivious to her reservations. He places the last of the clean dishes on the drying rack and pulls the plug from the drain. 

"I won't have them occupy your home, Lucifer," Chloe mumbles as she dries the mug in her hand, "You just had to crane a new piano into the Penthouse, which I just found out was a thing." 

"And you think them being welcomed into your home will force them to behave any better?" He finds a clean tea towel placed against the oven handle and uses it to pat his forearms dry before replacing it and unrolling his sleeves.

She moves away from him to store her mug, "Maybe, maybe not. But there must be a reason your Father asked for it to be held here. I just wish I had been asked directly." 

"What really?" Lucifer incredulously gawks at her, chewing her bottom lip. She returns to the frying pan, the last piece of kitchenware to have been washed.  
  
"I don't want Him coming within a hundred miles of you, let alone the same room." 

"Why? Are you not wanting me to be at your family dinner?" 

"Of course not!" Lucifer exclaims, "Bloody hell, Detective ***I*** can't even fathom being there. Why would I want to subject you to such discomfort?" 

"And that's… the only reason?" It's a question, but it resembles a statement. Feeling the urge to fidget, he begins to put back the cufflinks.

"What other reasons could I possibly have?" Trying to keep his tone as light and airy as possible.

It does not escape Lucifer that she still has a frying pan in her hand. 

Chloe eyes Lucifer, _that’s not an answer, and you know it.  
  
_ She debates pressing him further before a flash of lightning strikes behind her eye. She hisses, placing her palm against it, a burning headache replacing the strike of fire. The rest of her body beginning to shiver. Exhaling, Chloe releases the frying pan listening to it clunk on the counter, before pressing both her hands to the counter. She feels Lucifer behind her, turning her away from her current position and pulling her into his arms. The headache recesses as quickly as its onset, but it is nice to be wrapped up in his embrace. For him to pull her into a hug instead of the other way around. 

"That beleaguered sigh means you are disappointed," Lucifer murmurs against the crown of her head. He's not wrong, but that's beside the point right now. 

"Headache?" He inquires. 

"A new side effect since Michael." 

She feels Lucifer's arms stiffen around her. She didn't lie, but she realizes she also gave him more information than she had intended. "New" implies old or secondary 'side effects' exist, and this is as close as she has let anyone come close to finding out about the nightmares and her chest constricting anxiety attacks. 

Lucifer has been back a month, and this week, everything has been happening at speeds she would consider inhuman if it weren't for Ella and Pete's exceptionally quick and ultimately morbid relationship. 

"Lucifer?" Chloe finds her voice full of frustration, though she knows it is not meant to be directed at him. "You said I have a choice, but you never said if you do." 

He goes silent, his arms wrap around her tightly, possessively, but there is more to it. She knows her partner, and this is as close as Lucifer will get to clinging to her desperately when he still has his wits about him. 

"Well, much like the rest of my life," He begins haughtily, his skin searing where it presses against hers, "It has been deemed I do NOT have a choice in the matter." 

Chloe would stay in his arms forever if she could, but the chores are not finished yet. She pulls away to rinse out the sink. "So, what makes you think after almost five years of listening to you bitch and bemoan your family, I would abandon you and leave you to their devices?" 

"Because Father, Michael, Amenadiel, bloody hell, even YOU must understand that you are your own person, Detective. Irrespective of this whole 'gift' labelling, I will not have anyone force your hand in any of these ridiculous situations from now until the end of time!" Lucifer's enthusiastic response is accented by the slamming of his fist down against her countertop. Chloe looks over at him in surprise as he shrinks into himself and looks towards Trixie's door. She looks down at the counter and sees a small dent in the melamine surface. 

_Considering his strength, could've been worse._

"Earbuds. It's her way of taking a break from all of this." Chloe finishes wiping the stove before placing the rag down moving towards him. She reaches for Lucifer, curling her fingers across the edges of the lapels of his shirt, "My Drama Queen." 

"Correction, Drama _King_." 

She laughs and gazes up at his clearly irritated face in adoration, feeling as his body slowly curls inwards towards her. His hair is slowly coming loose from its impeccable coiffing. She lifts to her tiptoes to rub her nose against his, a small smile creeping over her face. Lucifer looks down at her radiance through long lashes, eyes dark and thoughtful, before his hands find their way up to her shoulders. 

"You are human, Chloe. He gave you free will. Exercise that right." 

"Then I'm hosting." She tells him, gazing up into his confused mahogany eyes. "And you're going to fix that." 

She directs her head to the indent on the counter that has him behaving as sheepish as Trixie does when she knows she's done something wrong. 

"And that doesn't mean hiring a contractor or paying out my damage deposit." 

"Oh?" He grins down at her wolfishly. 

"And it doesn’t mean buying the property, either." 

"Ah," Lucifer states, Chloe watches his face fall. Smiling, she presses her head to his chest, figuring that what she plans to say next will be easier if she doesn't have to meet his eyes. 

"That whole vulnerability thing? Emotionally I mean… because we both…" 

"Right. Yes." She hears his heartbeat quicken. 

Chloe shakes her head. "Right. But what I'm saying is. It's about give-and-take, yes? We're partners, and it's not always going to be equally balanced, but it's about letting each other be vulnerable or strong enough to pick up the slack. Compromise. Make hard choices." 

She looks up to Lucifer, and Chloe raises to her tippy toes to press a soft kiss to his lips before passing him and heading for the living room. 

"Kinda like how you're trying to find balance in yourself." She adds, stretching her arms and back before flopping into the couch in front of the fireplace. 

"Are you absolutely sure? I would loathe for you to do it out of obligation." Lucifer chooses the chair to her left rather than joining her on the sofa. He's building distance again. If Trix were at Dan's, she’s confident she could find ways to quell his concerns that required less _conversational_ validation. 

Alternatively, she goes for humour laced with truth.   
  
"And at what point did you think I would ever host a dinner for the first family to exist, comprised of overpowered petty celestial beings, if it weren't out of obligation? I don't even have my mom over."

"Come now, Detective, you've had me over for dinner monthly, if not more throughout our partnership," He chides, and it's dark now, the light of Chloe's fireplace dancing across his features. 

Chloe blinks at him pointedly, rolling her eyes dramatically before she smiles.

"Touché." He grins, but it doesn't manage to reach his eyes. 

She sighs as she watches Lucifer position himself there. Chloe feels as though she sees him in these brief moments, now more than she ever has before. His hands lie over the armrests of the chair, his legs cross so Chloe can see the hint of red on the soles of his feet. Right now, evidently lost in thought, a haunting stare on his face, he looks more regal than she ever thought he could. 

Just minutes ago, they were washing dishes. 

Sitting there like that in the soft din of the fire reminds her of moments long past where she wanted to kiss him senselessly, of times when Chloe had yearned to be near him in ways that she now can access freely if she so chooses. And yet, her most pressing desire is to somehow take that frustration and worry out of his mind.  
  
When she slips from her couch to the white area rug, Lucifer’s head snaps towards her like a predator watching prey. His eyes fix on her, drinking Chloe in while he shifts in his seat. 

"Detective?" 

She hesitantly crawls towards him, her knees digging into the fabric below her. Biting her lip, she blushes softly as Lucifer uncrosses his legs before his whole-body stills and he clutches the arms of the chair as she crawls towards him. 

She places her hands onto his knees and gently pushes them apart so she can pull herself up closer. Chloe hears Lucifer's breath catch, a groan hitching deep in his throat as she leans down and places her palms on his chest. She bends down and rests her head there, pressing the rest of her body against him for support. Lucifer twitches underneath her, his knuckles white against the chair. 

"Is this too much?" She whispers, "While Trix is still up?"

He licks his lips as he gawks at her with that bewitched expression, the one she feels herself growing more addicted to as the days go on. Shaking his head, his eyes remain focused on her lips. Chloe smiles at him, letting her chin rest against his abdomen as she moves her hands down his legs and uses his knees to push herself up and press her lips against his. 

Chloe pulls back to look into his eyes. They are full of perplexion and lust. 

"You know that, right? That you are different?" Chloe tilts her head to the side, nodding to Trixie's closed bedroom door, "Outside of her?"

He exhales a shuddering breath, his jaw twitching as he listens.

"I'm going to keep telling you until I get _through_ to you, Lucifer. It's you. It's been you for longer than I think I ever knew. It will always be you. No matter what. My choice. You, me… Us." 

She watches as he nods, his eyes growing slightly misty, but all his energy is being spent holding himself together, so she doesn't fault him for resorting to gestures instead of words. 

Sighing, she shakes her head and kisses him again, and his hands finally let go of the chair and pull her into his lap. They don't spend too much time exploring each other before he pulls back, and she wraps her arms around his shoulders and adjusts herself so that he can adjust _himself_ , and they sit there gazing into the fire in silence. 

~^^X^^~

_"Gabriel?" Chloe begs as she stands in a fractal world of red, grey, purple, and pink and gold morph around her in hexagonal patterns, dancing light around them._

_"Yes, Ankaa?"_

_"Why am I here?"_

_There must be a reason, a purpose as to why she continues seeing them here. Chloe grasps that she's supposed to understand, figures she should pay attention._

_"It is your choice. I am just here to facilitate, as always. All you have to do is remember."_

_"How many times?"_

_"In the words of the wisest woman I know, 'As many as it takes.'"_

The ringing in her ears morphs into the tone of her phone pulling her back, and she's staring at herself in the mirror of her bathroom in the apartment. The tap is running on full blast, and much of Chloe's shirt drips, soaked from the back spray. 

"Shit!" she exclaims, turning it off and grabbing the hand towel by the sink pressing it to her chest. Where did that daydream come from?

"Everything alright up there, Detective?" Lucifer calls out to her, still working his way gracefully through her kitchen since the wee hours of the morning. 

"Yup!" she exclaims to him from the bathroom. The cold dampness of her chest gives her a small bout of anxiety as she sees Dan's name flashes across the screen. Steeling herself first, she exhales before answering. 

"Hello?" 

"You can stop calling and leaving me voicemails. I'm ignoring them for a reason." Her ex scathes on the other line. She's only called and left Dan two messages so far, hardly enough for this level of animosity. But at least he’s opened the lines of communication. 

"You can't ignore me forever. What if something happened to Trixie?" 

"Don't be dumb. Of course, I listen to your messages to make sure my daughter’s fine. What do you want?" 

"I need to talk to you." Chloe hesitates as she attends to herself in the mirror. She's barely slept again because last night, Lucifer resigned himself to visit his Father with Amenadiel, shocking Chloe deeply considering Lucifer's hostility regarding Michael and God. Her partner also had to prepare for dinner the next day by purchasing groceries. This meant they still hadn't had an opportunity to talk about what he was upset about the other night at the Penthouse or her insomnia/dream issues.

"Chloe?" Dan urges.

"Yes?" She responds, realizing sheepishly that she's lost time pondering on her reflection in the mirror. 

"You have all of five minutes." 

"I'm inviting you over for supper tonight." Chloe announces before switching off the light and proceeding down the stairs to the living quarters. The house smells amazing. A combination of sweet and savoury scents fill her nostrils. Chloe's stomach does a flip. She can't remember the last time she ate but has decided to wait for supper because if she's to get anything out of this undesirable arrangement, it will be gorging on a Lucifer-made feast. 

"Uh-huh, sure," Dan starts, "And just to be clear, who is going to be attending said dinner?" 

"It's me, Linda, Amenadiel, Maze and," she feels he's going to interrupt, so the rest flows out of her as one word, "LuciferMichaelandGod." 

Lucifer looks up at her even though she's still hanging out by the stairs and gives her a rakish smile before placing an onion on the cutting board and beginning to chop. 

"What did you just say?" Dan asks.

"Lucifer?" She offers as she stares at her partner, doing his best to ignore their conversation. 

"Nope." 

"Michael?" 

"Closer." 

"God?" 

"That's the one… the fuck, Chloe?!" 

"Well, I found out what happened at the precinct," Chloe explains, wincing as Lucifer turns on the hand mixer. She moves towards the front door and walks a little way down the pathway that leads to the parking lot and her small back patio. Chloe adopts the tone she finds herself using more and more when she's defending her partner's actions, "And Lucifer was only a fifth at fault. Apparently, their Father—"

"God." 

"Yeah, Dan, _obviously_." 

"Obviously." 

"—Came and put an end to Michael’s petty little squabble, and so He's now asked to have supper with everyone."

"No."

"But, what if I said—"

"I said no thanks. I'd rather take my daughter out of that circus instead of watching you parade around as the Devil's whore." 

An iciness runs within Chloe, and she lets the pause over the line hang with weight while she contemplates hanging up on him or plowing ahead. 

"I immediately regret that. I'm so sorry." Dan mumbles.

"You are on such thin fucking ice right now," Chloe vehemently growls, looking around to see if anyone can hear her. She's tries to keep her voice low and considerate for the neighbourhood's sake, but she can sense her fury boiling over. "I'm going to break it down for you, okay? Because apparently, that's what you need from me, Dan. He asked that you be there, and really? After everything in the last few days, you owe Him." 

"I don't owe Lucifer shit." 

"No... Nonono... I mean God, as in your friend Amenadiel's Dad. Your once frenemy Lucifer's Father? HIM. He's asked that you be there. So essentially, you're saying no to God, Dan." 

"God has asked me to attend His family's dinner?" 

"Am I stuttering? I thought I made that abundantly clear. Also, why the fuck does it matter if it's God asking you? I'm asking you. Are we not friends?" Chloe doesn't often choose to curse. But once she breaches her profanity damn, it takes her some time to calm down and find her composure.

"Yes."

"And do you not regret helping the psychopathic angel who chose to kidnap me for whatever dumb-ass nefarious purposes he still hasn't revealed?"

"... Yes."

"Well then?" Chloe stares up the pathway out of her small apartment complex and towards the ocean. A palm tree sways in a gentle gale as she listens to Dan's breathing on the other side of the line.

"What are you planning to do about Trixie?" 

"Ella's on her way within the hour to pick her up for a girl's night out." 

"Good! Good because I can't stand the thought of her being there around… around any of them." 

"You think I'm jumping for joy over the thought? You think I wanted any of this? How much easier was all of this when we thought Lucifer was just some high-up international mob-boss son? Or a sleazy club owner? And you know what, Dan? I can't wait to watch you squirm because it's God Dan, and now that we are allll up to speed, I know you dated Lucifer's Mom, and so do you!" 

"Why are you yelling at me if you're mad at them?!" 

She lowers her voice and harshly whispers, "Because I'm petty, and you tried to kill my partner." 

And with that, Chloe hits end on their call. She texts Dan a time with a ‘be here’ before sliding the phone into her pocket and returning to the apartment.

The scent of savoury roast fills her senses, as Lucifer continues to work on his dessert dish, he looks up grinning briefly.

"You’re sure you don’t want any help?"

"I have told you repeatedly, all I require is for you to set the table. When will Miss Lopez be here? I’m hoping to send her and the Urchin with their own trifles."

She smiles at him, away he’s oblivious to how sweet she thinks it is that he thinks of such a thing.  
  
"Soon, It takes her about twenty minutes to get here, so in just under an hour?"

"Perfect, thank you my darling,” He responds absent-mindedly, and she feels her heart swell before moving towards Trixie’s bedroom door.

"Trixie-babe?" Chloe beckons to her daughter. Chloe stands in the door-jam and watches her eleven-year-old, colouring as she entered the room. 

"Time to pack up; I've got Ella coming to get you to go for a girl's night." Chloe tightly grins and feigns an air of cheeriness. She's been so exhausted lately, but the nightmares and daydreams (daymares?) have kept her from wanting to rest more than necessary. 

"What? Come on," Trixie rolls her eyes and places the red pencil down on her desk before turning to Chloe. 

"What's wrong with that? I thought you liked Ella?" 

“I love Ella, but why can't I have dinner with you and the family?" Trixie folds her arms over her chest and regards her mother carefully. 

Chloe hesitates for a moment, her left eye twitching, the tinnitus sound still in her ears, and she can feel Michael's forearm pressing into her windpipe. She inhales strongly through her nose. The hair on the nape of her neck stands on end at the thought of her least favourite angel passing her daughter dinner rolls. 

"Why would you wanna hang out with a bunch of boring old adults? Come on, Monkey, you're going to totally love this!" Chloe attempts, but it's weak at best, and Chloe knows it. She tries pushing her anxiety down into the depths of her stomach.

"No! You're lying!" Trixie snaps, and it throws Chloe through a loop. Chloe squints her eyes at her child and reframes the situation so she can assess it. Her eyes fall on the desk, and she takes in the picture her daughter was drawing for the first time. 

It's one of her larger pieces of drawing paper, but it's of a red planet. Alien spaceships shoot around in their crafts in the dark space outside Mars, the Earth far off in the distance, like a moon. Trixie herself stands beside a flag that has the Earth on it. Beside her is Maze, half her face missing and knives in her hands. And to Trixie's right is Lucifer with red glowing eyes. She sees herself and Dan, or at least their approximations, the ones she knows so well after all the years of her daughter's drawings. They are still in regular pencil waiting to be coloured in. 

Trixie was drawing her family. 

"This is really important to you, hey?" Chloe asks, sounding resigned. 

"Mom, I know you're worried. It's God. It's a big deal." Trixie states this time, a bit more softly.

Chloe's eyes narrow again. She peers over across the room and sees Trixie's window open, a window that shares the same foundation wall as the front door... 

_Shit, shit, shit… how much of that conversation did Trix actually hear?_

"You're not that quiet," Trixie shrugs, "And even if you were. I figured it out _pretty_ early. Maze and Lucifer have always told me the truth." 

Chloe removes herself from Trixie's door and heads over to her daughter's bed before flopping down on the mattress. She crosses her legs as Trixie turns in her chair to face her. Chloe's chest feels cold and damp still, so much so that it's unsettling, but she knows she needs to dedicate more time to her daughter. 

"Yeah, I guess that helps, hey Monkey? Having adults in your life who treat you like you're not a little kid." 

"Lucifer treats me like a little kid. All. The. Time. He just never lies to me." Trixie looks back at her drawing and shrugging, "He saves that for himself." 

Chloe's eyes go wide and shoots her eyes towards the door that’s still open not that far from the kitchen, but they can still hear him singing to himself as he cooks away on the stovetop. She licks her lips because there's not much Chloe can say to refute that.

"Well, that's definitely not a deduction a little kid would make, especially one so astute." 

Trixie looks back to her mother with an easy grin, "We all have our moments. Can I ask you a question, Mom?" 

Chloe smiles at the easiness that is all things her Monkey. "Always, baby. You can ask me anything, and if I have made you feel you can't, for however long, I'm really sorry." 

She watches her daughter nod slowly before she frowns and hesitates. She looks back at her mother with curious eyes. "When did you start believing?" 

The rush of a pulsing headache washes over her again, and she feels her own forehead begin to sweat as her eyes twitch. 

"Was it when you took us to Rome?" Trixie asks.

Chloe's eyes fill up with tears, and she nods quietly. She had failed everyone back then—all for some stupid prophecy; A stupid prophecy for a foolish woman who had a bad divinity trip off her best friend's face. 

"Was it because you were afraid?" 

"So afraid, baby," Chloe murmurs, hoping Lucifer is still focused on dinner and not this interaction between her and Trixie. "Afraid for you, afraid for me. Afraid for Lucifer even." 

She knows that no one else would have ever seen it that way.

But she had been. All Chloe could think about was Lucifer, from the moment he let the paramedics roll her away for the chest injuries she sustained, and the entire time while they were on the plane, and every day when she visited libraries and the Vatican in Rome. She thought of him, about every time he said her name with such adulation, every time she felt his lips against hers, every time he called himself the Devil.

When she showered, she touched her body at the thought of his hands, and the wings she thought she remembered seeing. At night she would bite her lip as flashes of her visions when she had seen his devil face, the ones where she saw their flesh pressed against each other hot and wanton, her name on his lips.

If all she had to worry about was that she was in love with Satan, Chloe knows it wouldn't have taken her long to turn around and come home. But there was also Trixie, and her partner had made it clear that he didn't like children, and although he had always been good to her, she began to read how MUCH he apparently did not like children, and the need to make sure Trixie was safe won.

_Like it always should._

Besides, it wasn’t like she could find a substantial amount of literature that backed her preconceived biases about him as essentially a martyr. She had chosen Rome for two reasons:

  * Chloe thought it would be one of the last places Lucifer would willingly follow her.
  * It was one of the cheapest open-ended tickets she could purchase for warm weather outside of the Americas.



And that choice had left her little opportunity to find opposing views on the Devil possibly being _misunderstood._

Chloe shakes her head and tries to remain focused as Trixie nods and gets up from her chair, moving to sit beside her on the bed. 

"Who... doesn't know?" Trixie casually asks.

Chloe thinks for a moment. Now that Dan knows, she realizes the only person not inside the loop will eventually have to be pulled into the fold. It was easier when half or even a quarter of their friend group wasn't aware. But now, it's going to be impossible for all of them if they don't let Ella in, as she was just as much a part of the hybrid celestial family-tribe they've created.

"Ella," Chloe hesitantly offers, and she watches her daughter's shoulders drop. She wants to explain to Trixie that she needs to go for her safety. That while angels and demons may seem totally 'fire' are also dangerous. That everyone is kind of mad at each other right now, and Lucifer and his family aren't known to get along.

"Well, I'm going to tell you the truth then, Monkey. I'm still not entirely comfortable knowing about angels and demons, and God and the Devil are real. Baby, don't you ever miss when it was just you and me?" 

Trixie shakes her head no. It rips Chloe's heart in half, even though she's certain that it's probably a fib to some extent. She's not certain the next decision she makes is the best one, but she can't imagine what it would be like for Trixie to be trapped with Ella all night, knowing what was happening at home and unable to communicate it to the forensic scientist. Feeling defeated, Chloe smiles sadly and nods. "Okay, baby, I'll text Ella, and you can stay." 

Chloe || 3:35 p.m.

I'm sorry, Ella, false alarm. Trixie isn't  
up to going out tonight. I'll make it  
up to you soon.

Ella || 3:37 p.m.

Oh, okay! Well, thanks for letting me  
know. Say hi to everyone for me! I'm  
going to go home and drink myself  
into a coma before sleeping for a week!

Now she would have to explain to both Lucifer and Dan why Ella was no longer on her way to pick up their child. She also was going to have to find time to talk to everyone about what they were going to do to help Ella.

 _Yes, focus on Ella and Trixie._ Chloe praises herself mildly. _Stop thinking about Lucifer, mojo, Michael, and God._

"Lucifer?" She calls for him as she comes down the stairs. First thing's first, she needed to discuss adding another to the guest list to tonight's festivities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would love to hear more about how you feel about the story!


	9. Part I: Stifle Your Slacken Maw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> \- Last Chapter -  
> Lucifer and Linda meet to discuss the nature of choice.  
> Chloe agreed to host supper for Lucifer's family.  
> Trixie convinced Chloe she should stay for dinner.
> 
> ~ ^^x^^ ~
> 
> CHAPTER SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaBHqMU9LKlM0YNl4VHiGXvT
> 
> FULL SOUNDTRACK: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMw2IejJKPaD9thdXvGwpstPh7S0HLHdN

_There is happiness_   
_In our history_

_"Lucifer?" Chloe calls as she comes down the stairs, and the entity kneeling in front of Pierce's lifeless form begins to effortlessly stand with all the grace of a shadow._

_He moves like Lucifer. He wears Lucifer's clothes, but she knows something immediately is off as she walks further down the stairs._

_Chloe knew as soon as she got off the phone with Dan._

_He turns to her, exhaling. His face is a shattered visage of raw and red, as though muscle and sinew stretch wide with deep cracked crevices. The deepest of which runs from the bottom of his chin roughly through his face, apart from his aquiline nose, only a chunk seemingly missing near the top right side. As soon as she beholds it, the world around him goes dark and prismatic._

_It tugs at her soul, pulling a chord within her like a plug until the riptide pools through her emotionally. It's unjust and off._

_God is real, and he is cruel._

_It's all true. His… no Its… Its magnetism pulling her closer to it, the walls around them melting. Every moment of sinful behaviour she's ever performed, every evil and malevolent thought (particularly those repressed), and horrifyingly shameful situation come flooding to the forefront of her mind._

_Lies, she told her parents.  
_ _Her mother embarrassing her at her first audition.  
_ _Taking off her top when required by the casting director for Hot Tub Highschool.  
_ _Punching Nick Hofmeister in the face at her father's funeral.  
_ _Cheating on an exam at the police academy after she spent the night out partying with friends.  
_

_Chloe works to shake her head, moving the sense of dread and guilt backwards and away. It's as though the whole universe falls into focus._

_Whispers of unworthiness flood into her ears._

**_Whore. Liar. Coward. Naive. Stupid. Ridiculous. Marionette._ **

**_Evil.  
_ ** **_Unworthy._ **

_  
The voice sounds like Lucifer's._

_"_ _It's all true." Three words escape her, and a tidal wave of emotion capsizes her senses, and she finds herself trembling as she steps backward. Chloe feels the tacky blood sticking to the soles of her feet, white feathers crunching under toe. She's only tried hallucinogens a few times before she started dating Dan, but as the world around her continues to close in, the world around him falling into dripping darkness, she continues to hyperventilate as though she's experiencing a bad trip. Washes of her life with Lucifer so far flood her; desires and fantasies, realities and nightmares. Other pieces that make no sense to her hit her in the chest, and she can't breathe._

 _Flashes of Lucifer with Charlotte and Amenadiel flood her.  
_ _They stand around a tree together.  
_ _Lucifer holds a bloody blade, his hands covered crimson.  
_ _Chloe sees Lucifer at the window, heartbroken as Pierce proposed.  
_ _A small vial, sitting between them over a supper of grill cheese, and she feels betrayal in her heart.  
_ _The same vial around a beautiful woman's neck.  
_ _She kneels in front of him as he stares down at her adoringly, his eyes brilliant red as he strokes her cheek.  
_ _He and Trixie stand at the breakfast bar in her apartment, the face she is bearing witness to right now on full display, raw and red.  
_ _A baby on a table in some South American temple, Maze, and Lucifer fighting a priest and civilians to get to the infant.  
_ _She's unconscious in a hospital. A bleach blonde man with a red tie is pouring salt in a circle around her bed.  
_ _Chloe sees herself in Hell, tall spires of carbon holding her captive.  
_ _She sees the universe go dark._

_It's all too much, too bright, it's too fast, all of it. Is this the same as what the others see? Is this different, special just for her?_

_"Detective?" It, whatever_ **_he_ ** _is, it sounds like Lucifer, that sweet, warm honey-gold voice that usually snaps her out of so many of her issues._

_It wears Lucifer's suit._

_It wears Lucifer's skin.  
  
_ _But as Chloe feels herself backing further away from him, shock and adrenaline pulsing through her. This can't be her partner. The man her heart yearns for until she feels insane. Her Lucifer, who gently kisses her as though she belongs behind glass, as though she could break. Every case they've ever worked, every criminal who has needed a psych evaluation after she let him loose on them, taunt hers as she does her best to maintain a distance—the man who threw himself from the rooftop._

 _Does that make her an accomplice to evil?  
_ _To murder?_

_"It's all true," she breathes again as she falls back against the stairs._

_"Chloe?" He asks her, his head tilted to the side, his eyes widening in horror._

_The weight is pulled off her chest, his primal rage and visceral disgust uncoiling from within her and back into himself._

_She already misses it._

"Chloe?" Linda asks. 

"Yes?" Chloe blinks. 

In front of her the table creaks with an abundance of food: Lucifer could not decide so he had made both double-baked potatoes, mash potatoes, carrot sticks, broccoli, peas, and salad. There was also roast beef, grilled chicken, dinner rolls, Yorkshire puddings, and gravy. She had no idea where she was going to store it all once the meal was over, as she couldn't imagine it all being consumed.

_Celestials don't need to eat, do they?_

Her first instinct is to hold onto the memory of his face, dissect its importance of the flashback to their current situation, all while realizing Linda needed her attention. 

"Yes, sorry, what?" Chloe asks and turns to her friend sitting to her right. Beside Linda is Amenadiel, who sits beside God at the head of her standard small rectangular table. Chloe hears an off-putting voice, one that sounds like Lucifer but… wrong, arguing, and the accent begins to break through her mental fog. 

Linda searches her eyes curiously. "Can you please pass the salt?" 

"…Learn from your brothers, Amenadiel and Samael." God finishes stating, and she is completely transported back into her dining room by the sound of His voice. 

She feels Lucifer's fingers slip through her own and clutch her tightly. Chloe blinks again and looks down at the contact before up at Michael and God. 

"Lucifer." Amenadiel whispers to God with a kind disposition. 

God draws His eyebrows close together, staring for a considerable amount of time at Amenadiel. 

"Lucifer. Right. My apologies." And He looks to her partner, who gently squeezes her hand, the angel to whom He really should be apologizing. 

Chloe looks around and assesses the group. To her left is Lucifer, sitting as tall as possible, all while still accomplishing to shrink back into himself. Trixie, seated directly across from her, has already thumbed up the volume to her headphones, trying to ignore the adults behaving like fools surrounding her. It's so loud Chloe can hear Taylor Swift playing on the other side, and if they weren't getting into some really messed up conversational territory, she might tell Trixie to turn it down and save her hearing. Instead, right now, she's just thankful for musically enforced ignorance. All the colours in her vision are bright and vivid, like she's living in a painting. A sense of overwhelming emotion washes over Chloe as Lucifer's hand burns hot in her own, his thumb stroking circles into the top of it. 

"—and what I'm saying is that he doesn't even have to try. He's just inherently like that. Which is what I've been trying to tell the Miracle, you and Father for a while now." Michael's voice makes her shudder, a visceral action that draws everyone's attention. 

_I have a name, you insufferable sleazeball disguised as an angel._ The words linger on the edge of her tongue. Instead, she reaches for the glass of water in front of her and drinks. 

"You have stated your case, my son, for quite some time now. Let us allow others to their turn. You have something you would like to say, Chloe Decker?" God offers with respect in His voice. 

She pauses as all eyes at the table turn towards her. Michael wears a sneer that would remind her of Lucifer if it weren't for the jagged mutilation etched into his features. Maze raises her scarred eyebrow at her, Amenadiel looks on with an aloof smile. 

Chloe can feel Lucifer's gaze boring into the back of her skull. 

"Yeah… yeah, I think I do." Chloe places her glass down and is completely lost as to how she plans to proceed. She doesn't exactly even know what she wants to say, but if she's being given the floor, who is she to turn down God? 

"I think most people at this table have done horrible things to each other at some point in their relationship," She commences. Across from her, Dan's eyes shift to his plate and Michael rolls his eyes. Meanwhile Maze wears that blank expression that she and Lucifer seem to have practiced on each other for eras. Lucifer's thumb continues to stroke the top side of her hand, his ring digging into her fingers, but Chloe would rather feel that slight pain than to not have his hand in hers. 

"I'll start with me," Chloe meets Maze's gaze. "I've treated you poorly. After you did a lot for me, more than you're usually willing to give. But just because I ask for space Maze doesn't mean I don't appreciate you. So instead of talking to me about it, you decide to punish me by undermining my relationship with Lucifer." 

Maze jams her tongue into the side of her mouth, folding her arms and tilting her head towards Chloe. Chloe looks over to the leering Michael, smug as he leans his elbows against the table, shoulder slumped slightly lower than the other. "And you. I may have tried to seduce you, Michael, but that was to prove you weren't Lucifer. And in turn, you thought it was okay to break into my home assault me and hold me hostage."

 _What the hell are you doing, Chloe?_ She feels as Lucifer's thumb stop rubbing the top of hers.  
  
Shit, had she told him exactly what had happened with Michael before his return? Was she supposed to? 

"It wasn't my intention to hurt you." Michael throws his hands up, "I sometimes forget my own strength."

"The floor is not yours, Michael," God interrupts. 

Chloe can't think about how embarrassed she feels right now. 

"But it was your intention to kidnap me. And here you sit, because for some insane reason... I'm incredibly tolerant. I'm just pointing out two things, but we all know we all have done things to hurt each other. And still, for some reason, the focus seems to be on Lucifer and what he has done wrong in the past, instead of focusing on all the things he's doing right— right now." 

"Like abandoning his post in Hell?" Michael offers. 

"It wasn't abandoned. I was there when I received word from Father that Hell no longer required a celestial ruler." Amenadiel intercedes. 

"Oh?" God hums. The note of question is not lost on Chloe. 

"Just because it doesn't require it doesn't mean that Samael was finished with his punishment!" Michael snaps. 

"ENOUGH!" Chloe slams her palm against the table, all eyes looking back towards her, and Michael has the decency to look ashamed about his interruptions. She briefly looks at Trixie, horrified that it has come to this, but her Monkey keeps her eyes down at her plate as though broccoli was the most fascinating object the preteen has ever seen. This is why they do not have family dinners. Family dinners in the Decker house were full of Decker Mother's yelling, having fits while the rest of the group had to pick up the pieces. 

_So, is it better or worse that you're sober, Chloe?_

"I'm not finished. I have probably spent the most time with Lucifer over the last four years, even more so than Maze. And in four years, I have witnessed him rise to any challenge he has had to face, but not only that, I have watched him successfully improve himself and the lives of everyone around him—"

"And here she goes," Dan interjects, and all heads shoot in his direction, his face immediately paling. "I realize that it's possible I said that out loud." 

"Excuse me?" Chloe's voice is terrifying low as she glares icy daggers into Dan. 

"I mean, it's what you do, right? Champion Lucifer, whenever anyone has anything bad to say? Whether there's validity to their concerns or not. Guys, what is happening? It's like I can't turn it off." Dan asks the room, horrified, almost on the verge of tears. He sits there still instead of moving, shaking in his seat.

"He does have a point." Maze offers lazily, tearing a roll in half. 

"See?" Michael shrugs, holding his hand up and pointing to Maze. 

"Shut up, Michael!" Chloe and Maze both shout in unison, Michael smiling and pretending to be afraid of them. 

"He does, Chloe," Maze turns towards her, "I took care of you when he left. Dan and I both did, and why did we have to? Because Lucifer abandoned us! Which is your greatest fear. Remember? You letting that little tidbit slide as I held you while you cried? And all the times I wanted to throw it back in your face. Because telling me something like that, used to mean I'd use it to torture you. But instead, do you remember when Dan and I took Trixie to school when you couldn't, or when I picked up slack at your job when you didn't have it in you. I even did paperwork, which as far as I know… has Lucifer ever? And then! The car accident! The one from before this dumbass over here?" and Maze thumbs to the left of her Michael, "We thought you DIED Chloe." 

Lucifer's face tightens with the reveal, but he doesn't interject. 

He isn't holding her hand any longer, either. 

"And afterward, when we got you home, Dan or I never left your side. **Ever**. Again. Because that way, I could make sure nothing was ever going to happen to you. And I made sure you kept your boring routine because that's what Linda said was what you needed the most." 

"What?!" Chloe gasps, looking beside her, at the blonde woman currently choking on her water. 

"I… uh… Oooooh…." She states before looking around the table, "Wait, is that Charlie, I hear?" And Linda makes to get up. 

"Sit your ass down, Linda!" Maze roars. Causing Linda to yelp before plopping back down in her chair, the tension in her shoulders strung high. 

"Mazikeen—" Amenadiel endeavours to interject. 

"Linda is important to this conversation," Maze bites before looking at her prior housemate. "You literally have all of us dumping on you non-stop, and the only one who pays you is Lucifer. The flip side of that coin is that like ninety percent of those problems are usually in relation— to Lucifer." 

"Oh my…" And Dan swallows in horror before he finishes his sentence. "Is that why you took me on as a client? Because you're the friend group celestial therapist?"   
  
"It's a niche specialization. I'm technically the only one in the world," Linda soothes.

"Well, at least you're getting compensated by two of us, although I do hope your pro-rating for Daniel," Lucifer murmurs. He actually sounds genuine that Chloe wants to laugh because it's kind of true, and it is more than funny.

"I'll have you know I have a decent benefits package," Dan mumbles to the group, causing Lucifer to looks over to Linda, and she shrugs and nods.

 _This is hilarious. This is insane and somewhat hilarious._ Chloe thinks to herself, but she's still so very furious about what is happening at this dinner that she's not going to let it go that easily. Apparently, neither will Maze. 

"Sure, great, so Linda and Trixie are like the biggest mediators in this clusterfuck we call a family, or tribe or whatever the hell we are going to call it at this point—" 

"—MAZE, LANGUAGE!!" Chloe decries. 

"Please, she's listening so loud even **I** can hear it!" Maze snaps. She lets go of her utensils and stretches her hand as though it's itching to throw items as makeshift weaponry. "We took care of each other, Chloe. We were more than just roommates. We were family. And then you just tell me that it's not working anymore and that you're done with me? With us?" 

"Maze, you tried to kiss me!" Chloe feels Lucifer's body twitch beside her at Maze's reveal and feels relieved that he remains as silent as the grave, especially after her own... suspiciously open confession. 

"Now who's talking about stuff that Trixie does not need to hear about!?" 

"SHUT UP—" 

"—DAN!" 

"—Daniel!" Maze, Chloe and Lucifer yell in unison. 

Chloe blushes furiously as she senses Lucifer crossing, then uncrossing his legs beside her. 

"That was after you said we were done!" Maze adds, exasperated. "I tried to **show** you what you meant to me, after defining how I feel." Maze looks over to Linda, who cringes lower in her seat before looking back at Chloe, "Because you were practically breaking up with me!" 

"Yes! Well—" Chloe looks around at everyone staring at her, God, Michael, Amenadiel, Dan and Maze as her cheeks grow crimson, "Maybe it was getting too complicated too fast, Maze. Your relationship with Trixie mattered more to me than an obviously messed up codependency we were creating." 

"This is getting good." 

"Shut up, Michael," The juxtaposition in Lucifer and Amenadiel tones sounds harmonious. 

Maze closes her eyes, steeling herself before fixing a glare upon Chloe. 

"Oh, because you and Lucifer aren't bizarrely co-dependent? You find out you are literally predestined by this one," Maze has no fear as she points rudely at the elderly celestial at the head of the table, "And in like three weeks, you're all better? Lucifer took almost two YEARS to get over it. Does that seem fair to you? Equal even? You really trust those emotions? But never mind that because then Lucifer comes back!" 

Maze sweeps her arms wide open, gesturing to Lucifer, who is staring out into the middle distance, unfocused and detached from the conversation. "He comes back, and it's like… The rest of us don't even exist anymore. What does Ellen call them?" 

"Deckerstar," Dan chimes in before placing his hands over his mouth. 

"Deckerstar. It's all about Team Deckerstar. Toe the line or get in back because." Maze flops her hands to her sides before the sting of tears seems to threaten to spill over, "Whatever your problems are… They're not on par with Deckerstar's." 

"See? The demon gets it!" Michael beams as he rips a bun in half and offers the other half to God. 

"Enough, Michael." God gently rests his hand on Michael's. 

"You have to see Chloe." Dan intervenes, and he looks down at his hands spread wide against the tablecloth. He seems to try and pull them away from the surface, but they behave as though they are pinned. His breathing begins to get erratic. 

"You have to see how Maze and I feel whenever Lucifer shows up after weeks, months, with no call. No regard for the wake he leaves in his path. You both shut us out and do these little things to make Maze and I feel inferior, like somehow, you're on a different level than us. Even before we all knew the truth, you would be off in your own little world. You let him get away with things that you would have never let any of us get away with." 

"Unconditional love!" Chloe scathes, "In your vows, you said, 'Chloe Jane Decker, I Daniel Anthony Espinoza support your dreams no matter what they are if that means you somehow miraculously make Detective before I do, then so be it. I will build you up and have your back no matter what. I'll do anything it takes to keep you safe. I will never stop seeing all the little special things that make you, you. And I will do it all with unconditional love.'" 

Chloe can hear Maze getting angry with Amenadiel and Linda in the background, but her focus is on Dan. They need this insane level of honesty that seems to mysteriously be happening. She needs to finish this with Dan before they can forgive each other. 

"You remembered." 

"I remembered. And for a long time, you did, until at some point, you decided you wouldn't. Like I was forcing you to be home or apart of our family. As soon as you made detective Dan, you were gone. It wasn't about me, or us, anymore. It was The Dan Show. How can I support Dan? How can I be a better wife to Dan? What does Dan need for me to make his life easier?" 

"But you do that for Lucifer!" 

"Because Lucifer does that for me!" Chloe snaps. "Do you remember my vows?" 

And Dan looks guiltily down to his hands before he shakes his head no. 

"I, will be honest and open. You can tell me anything if you let me tell you everything. I will be there for you when you wake up and when you go to sleep. I want to be the one to make you laugh, to hold you when you cry, to grow old with you, to bear your children. I can't promise that I will always get it right or always have the answer. If your promise is unconditional love and support, then so is mine. I will always fight for what we have. No matter what, until the end of time." 

Chloe feels Lucifer squeeze her hand gently, and she realizes somehow he had managed to slip it into hers during her speech to her ex-husband. She knows she's on a rampage, her tirade overstaying its welcome at a dinner for a family that could care less about the problems of two humans who had divorced three years ago, yet the momentum of all her frustration continues to barrel her forward. The sound of Maze's voice barking at Amenadiel and Linda fades away as the world around Dan goes dark, hyper-focusing on his guilty countenance. 

"I tried SO HARD to keep those vows. But even before Lucifer, Maze and Amenadiel became fixed into our vocabulary, you bailed Dan. You bailed before we even got to Palmetto Street! I felt like a ghost in our own relationship for years before we separated!!" 

And before Chloe can say anything else much further, a spoonful of mashed potatoes flies to her right out of the peripherals of her vision towards the head of the table, landing in a resounding plop against his right cheek. 

Chloe goes silent as she looks at God's face; He blinks curiously as He wipes the potatoes and looks down at His hand. Speechless, Chloe looks over and stares at her daughter in awe as Trixie pulls the earbuds out and sighs. 

"Finally," Trixie murmurs and picks up the knife to cut into the roast beef on her plate. 

Before Chloe can process what is happening, a carrot bounces across her chest, and she's grabbing her glass of water and throwing it in Michael's face. Maze is hurling buns at Lucifer and Amenadiel while Linda ducks below the table. Dan has a hand full of mash-potatoes and whips them towards Michael when Maze ducks before throwing his carrots at Lucifer and Chloe. 

"That's for taking my last pudding!" Dan yells. 

"I will not be judged in this kangaroo court!" Lucifer scathes. 

"This is for making Charlie sick!" Amenadiel complains, tossing sticks of carrots at Michael, bouncing them off his chest. 

"How would that even work, Amenadiel? I just contract a human cold and cough in his face? You sound CRAZY right now," Michael booms. 

The cacophony of sound that was almost all aggression before now has squeals of laughter interlaced between the ridiculous insults. 

"Aim for the clothes, they matter more to him than his face!" Maze instructs the family as Linda continues to hide under the table. 

"Stifle your slacken maw, you smooth-brained harlequin!" Lucifer denounces as he grabs a handful of broccoli to bounce off Maze's head and forearms.

For the most part, Trixie stays out of the fight, only throwing things off her plate that land on her. If Chloe had been paying attention, she would have observed how intently God was focused on her daughter, the original culprit in these shenanigans. 

If Chloe had beheld his fascination, she might have changed her approach sooner. 

This time, Chloe just allows the laughter to fill her senses. 

Food, they can clean. It is a better option than bloodshed.

~^^x^^~

Chloe, dishcloth in hand, wipes pointlessly at the stains of gravy and mustard, marring her soft pink sweater, the front of it soaked again as she pats the stains with soap and water. Currently, Amenadiel is taking Michael back to the Palisades property that Lucifer has given his Father to stay in, while on Earth. Linda is feeding Charlie in Trixie's bedroom, and Dan, Lucifer, Maze and Chloe are all still cleaning food that has landed in the different nooks and crannies of her apartment.

"I'm worried about Ella." She states.

Dan looks up from under the table, and Lucifer looks up from where he's sweeping. 

"What happened?" Dan asks as Maze continues to walk around the room, spearing meat slices and carrots with daggers as a way of picking them up.

"Well, for starters, Pete tried to kill her." She sighs and tosses the dishrag into the sink, later she will have to pray that stain remover will be good enough. 

"Who hurt Ella?" Maze straightens and manages to flick the blades without flinging more food everywhere. 

"Well, if you hadn't been a back-stabbing little tw—"

"Lucifer!" Chloe interrupts him in a chastising manner. He slumps his shoulders before continuing, "You might be up to speed on things that your associate, my pathetic nitwit of a twin, had put everyone through."

"And if you weren't a narcissistic fuckbo—"

"You guys, enough!" Chloe snaps and pinches the bridge of her nose. The stress has been building behind her eyes, and Chloe realizes she's ready for bed. She's still recovering from a kidnapping that really hasn't been addressed at all, with any amount of sincerity or much levity once God graced everyone with His presence. 

"Okay," Dan states, getting off his knees from under the table. Chloe can hear his understanding in his voice. Out of everyone still in the home, he's known her the longest, understands her in ways that others may not. "I think if this is the way this conversation is going to continue to go, we might want to leave so that Chloe doesn't have to spend the rest of her days off cleaning. That being said, did anyone else find they were saying stuff that they would HAVE NEVER said in a usual setting?" 

Chloe and Maze look at each other. Maze shrugs slightly, jutting out her bottom lip, and Chloe narrows her eyes, reflecting on the conversation that only touched the surface of some of the very deeply seeded issues everyone in her apartment is facing. While Chloe was uncomfortable with some of the things that came up at dinner, it had never occurred to her that she didn't have a choice in stating them. Now, she realizes that ever since God has shown up that she's been out of sorts, being more open about her vulnerabilities than she normally would. Lucifer looks over at Dan, his jacket and waistcoat tossed in a bag to head straight to the cleaners. Dan has removed the tie and dress shirt he had been wearing over an old white t-shirt she thinks she remembers from their marriage. She grabs a sheet of paper towel and walks over to the wall with mash potato streaked over her pictures. 

"Father tends to compel beings to reveal their true feelings on any subject, no matter how personal," He shrugs. "You shouldn't feel too ashamed, Daniel. I've seen better men fall harder."

"I'd ask you why you are the way you are, but…" Dan mutters before he walks towards the garbage bin and throws handfuls of food into the garbage.

"Outside of our differences and reasons to be angry with each other, can we talk about this? I mean before Trixie comes back in from apologizing to God?" Chloe begins a desperate plea. 

_I'll take sentences that no one would ever believe are based in reality for 500, Alex._

"I mean…" She shrugs as she wipes off another picture hanging on her wall. It's of Trixie as a baby, in her arms. She looks so young, so happy, "You were all able to set it aside when coming to find me. We need to do the same for Ella."

"What did you have in mind?" Dan asks. Chloe puts the picture back and turns to Dan before holding out her hand to him and having him take it in hers. 

"I honestly don't know. I mean… Do we know if Ella has any other friends outside of us? I know she stopped going to church in the last year or so, so what she was saying earlier this week really stuck with me."

Dan nods, and Lucifer looks curiously between both detectives. Chloe senses he's upset with her gesture of kindness.

"Care to enlighten the rest of us?"

"Oh!" Chloe says and blushes, "Right, well first, she called Pete the anti-Christ, which was awkward for Dan and me because… obvious reasons." 

She shrugs and pulls Dan closer to Lucifer before looking towards Maze.

"Then she pointed out the fact that you all left her to rescue me after she spent thirty hours helping Lucifer work the case, at which point she found out that Pete was the real Whisper Killer. So he tried to kill her."

Maze blood lust is rippling across the surface of her face, disgust and rage that she knows well harboured there. She moves closer to Chloe and Dan, and Chloe reaches out to her as well. She narrows her eyes and places her blades down on the dining room table before moving closer to the Detectives, arms crossed. Chloe looks over to Lucifer, who, too, looks like he usually does before his eyes flare red. Chloe reaches out and takes Lucifer's hand also, and she can tell he's befuddled by the proximity of all parties.

"And as incredibly fragile as I can only assume, she is right now, I mean, we should talk to Linda about it, but I think it might be time for us to have a divine intervention with her." 

Lucifer, Maze and Dan share hesitant looks between each other before looking back at Chloe wearily.

"Detective, are you sure that would be what's best for Miss Lopez?" Lucifer asks her gently. 

"We all have friends outside the core group of us, but it hurts. It hurts not to know when others do. I think that's something Dan and I could at least agree on." 

Dan looks up at Lucifer, his eyes searching before he turns to face Chloe. His head shifts from shoulder to shoulder as though he weighs it inside his head before he's nodding. "I would agree with that sentiment, but I admit, I'm kind of on Lucifer's side on this one. I'm only a little religious. Just because we don't know what Ella is currently practicing, she's still pretty devout." 

Lucifer once more shares a jaded expression with Dan before turning to Chloe, his eyes softening as he meets hers.

"Well, I don't know! I did say we should ask Linda." Chloe feels Maze's arms wrap around her shoulders, protectively.

"Ask Linda what?" She appears from Trixie's room, and she's readjusting her breast inside her bra. Dan looks away for propriety's sake while Maze, Lucifer and Chloe pay it no attention.

"Doctor, when you were in the hospital with your infant spawn, Miss Lopez suffered from her own traumatic event that she should most definitely see someone over."

"Well, I'm sure we can find her someone that _—_ "

"And the Detective thinks it might be the right time to dump the celestial world additionally on her shoulders," Lucifer finishes holding his hand out, gesturing towards Chloe. Linda moves closer to the barstools in the kitchen. 

"I never said right NOW!" Chloe huffs. Dan and Maze exchange a guarded look before peering over to Linda. Chloe feels Maze squeeze her shoulder tighter.

"Oh…" Linda says and holds her hand out, palms down against the countertop as she processes the information. 

"Ella is the only one left who isn't in the know, isn't she?" Linda realizes, looking up at her. Chloe nods relieved that Linda understands her predicament before slipping into one of the barstools. Maze lets go of her to walk around the counter to lean against it, and Lucifer moves to stand ridged behind Chloe. She feels herself leaning gently against his chest as they continue the conversation. 

"I'm not suggesting we do anything that would hurt Ella any more than she currently is suffering," Chloe feels the urge to explain, "But the longer we take to address the fact that she's on the outside of this, the more upsetting it's going to be. If we work together to create a plan, we may be able to get ahead of it." 

"While I agree with your intentions Chloe, I'd like to address Lucifer in this decision," Linda tells her, in her famous Dr. Martin tone. 

"Me?" Lucifer asks curiously, the heat from his breath sending shivers down Chloe's neck. He places one hand against her shoulder, and she finds comfort in the extra contact. 

"Of course!" Linda encourages, "This is your secret to reveal. Your story to tell. I'm curious if you feel ready to involve Ella deeper into your life, taking into account the only introduction you've had a choice in was my own." 

"Yes well," he scoffs, the heat of his palm warming Chloe through her sweater, "Considering that everyone I care about has had a reaction that continues to increasingly get worse, I would assume my greatest fear would be that Miss Lopez succeeds in sending me back to Hell, dead or alive."   
  
Dan sheepishly looks to Chloe, whose own face is tight with shame. 

"All though I suppose that no one has had the opportunity to have a support system in place when my devil face reveal has occurred, not to mention getting to Miss Lopez before my sadistic brother has an opportunity to turn her against us." 

Chloe looks over to Dan, who nods thoughtfully. Maze still looks ready to maim something but appears to be attempting a more empathetic ear. Linda remains ever the professional, her calm and patient demeanour at work to help guide them all through the next step. 

"We could start with wings over your face. It seemed to work for Charlotte the best," Linda surmises. "But that would have to come at a later date. As Ella's friends, we need to check in with her regularly and be there to listen. Really listen. That means if she doesn't want to talk, that's a natural reaction too. These next few days will be incredibly important." 

"I suppose Maze and I could do that," Dan offers. "Not that, not that you two shouldn't either, but I imagine you both have a lot on your plate with family in town. After I take Trixie to my parents this weekend, Maze and I could work together. I'm just saying, Maze, and I can make sure to pick up the slack if you can't do it. Lucifer, what exactly is the range of your Father's influence?" Dan asks exhaustion, lacing his tone. 

Chloe's pretty certain it's larger than anyone wants to admit.

"Speaking of which," Chloe hops up from the barstool and moves to the sliding door to her patio space. A familiar swishing sound rings through the air before she pokes her head out and makes eye contact with her daughter, ignoring the older man on purpose. The sun is setting against the horizon. 

"Five more minutes, Monkey. Then bed," Is Chloe's curt declaration, she smiles tightly at her. 

"Okay, mom." Trixie smiles. 

Chloe nods briefly at God before closing the door before she returns to the barstool. 

"I suppose I deem it's cruel to not include Miss Lopez in our gatherings. Considering how long Father plans to stay and how many we most likely will end up enduring in the process." 

The circle goes quiet, a thick fog of dread settling between all of the parties. It's one thing to have the in-laws visit. It was another for them to take up residence in your life after millennia of absenteeism and request time be carved out for half the year. 

"So, we will have to come up with a plan. Michael will probably make this much harder on all of us." 

They all nod in agreement. Tonight isn't the night to figure out the solution to this exceptional problem. The fact that they are all working towards a similar goal is more than enough. 

The sound of the patio door swishes open, and Trixie enters, all adults looking towards her. 

"You can sleep in my room Monkey; Charlie is still in your room. Go grab your PJ's and head on up." 

Trixie nods and approaches all of them. She looks at all five of the adults before finding herself doing 'rounds' of goodnight. 

Beatrice first hugs Chloe, and Chloe leans down and tells her that she will be up in a few minutes to tuck her in. She then moves to Maze and hugs the demon telling her goodnight, and Maze relaxes in the embrace and smiles faintly. 

"Amenadiel should be here any minute," Linda sighs. 

"You can sleep in Trixie's bed, Linda, if he's not." 

"Where have you been staying?" Dan asks Maze as Trixie releases her and moves over to Lucifer. 

"Goodnight, Lucifer," Trixie states and hugs him, his hands resting on her shoulders before rubbing her back gently. 

"I have my own hideouts." Maze mutters, folding her arms as though she feels cold now the Trixie has moved on. 

"Goodnight, Urchin," Lucifer mutters to the top of Trixie's head before she moves over to her father and jumps up at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. 

"Daddy, will you come and tuck me in too?" 

"Sure, Monkey," Dan smiles and releases her to the floor. 

"Night, Linda!" Trixie waves, and she heads quietly into her bedroom to pick out her sleepwear. 

"I suppose I shall take my Father home," Lucifer sighs and walks towards the sliding glass doors, twilight beginning to take hold of the sky, "Now that the Detective feels the urchin has made appropriate amends. Although I doubt Father's thrift store chic was hardly ruined." Chloe turns to Maze, "Do you really have somewhere to stay?" 

"Why would you care now, all of a sudden?" The demon accuses. 

"Maze," Linda gently asserts her name. 

"Yes. I have Linda and Charlie. I also have a few safe houses set up around the city," Maze states rolling her eyes and trying to control the volume of her voice. 

"Yes, Maze, but I plan to stay here tonight if Amenadiel doesn't make it back in time." 

"I'm offering you your room, Maze. If you want it." 

"Gee… Thanks, Chloe. But no. I'd rather go where I'm not constantly reminded about how unworthy I am." 

"Maze," Chloe tries, and she feels herself growing tired, the piercing pain behind her eyes, the ringing in her ears. A wave rushes over her. She knows this is an important moment. She can feel herself wanting to discern the right path and if she's missing anything. 

"Maze, I want you here because the more we work together, the better a team we are. I'm sorry that I shut you out. Really, it wasn't fair to you. I just want you to understand how important you are as part of this family, Trixie's family." 

"Don't you dare, Chloe," Maze sneers, one of her fists balling beside her, her other arm grabbing its elbow. "Don't you dare use Trix against me!" 

_Damn it, that's not what I was trying to do._

Chloe shakes her head and sighs as Maze walks towards the front door and exits in a burst of energy. 

"I really screwed that one up." Chloe sighs, sitting back down beside Linda. 

Linda shrugs, "We are in uncharted territories now Chlo, all we can do is our best, to be honest and open." 


End file.
